Evaluation of a flow diversion system for reducing /sup 90/Sr migration from SWSA 4 to White Oak Creek

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5846917· OSTI ID:5846917

Melroy, L. A.; Huff, D. D.

Discharge from the Solid Waste Storage Area 4 (SWSA 4) watershed was studied to determine the extent to which a flow diversion system has reduced the migration of /sup 90/Sr into White Oak Creek. The diversion system was built in 1983 to divert runoff from the SWSA 4 catchment headwaters area (56% of the basin) around buried wastes because an earlier study showed that this would be an effective remedial measure for reducing /sup 90/Sr migration. The results presented here indicate that the diversion system has reduced the average flow in the SWSA 4 tributary by 56% and the flux of /sup 90/Sr by 44%. A second phase of the study was to rank SWSA 4 and its surrounding areas as sources of /sup 90/Sr input to White Oak Creek. Runoff from SWSA 4 contributes about 67% of the local /sup 90/Sr input to White Oak Creek and is therefore the major source of contamination. The remaining 33% could be attributed to either groundwater inflows from adjacent contaminated floodplain areas or computational uncertainty arising mainly from errors in the measurement of flow and /sup 90/Sr concentration. Preliminary results suggest that it is groundwater transport of /sup 90/Sr from adjacent areas that is responsible for the additional inputs. 9 refs., 11 figs., 12 tabs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5846917
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-9374; ON: DE85012071
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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