Plans and Practices for Groundwater Protection at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Final Report (2007) / Chapter Skim
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3 Contamination Sources and Source Control
3 Contamination Sources and Source Control
Pages 19-34
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to sanitary waste treatment plants, to radioactive waste 2. Have potential sources of non-Laboratory ground- treatment facilities.
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liquid discharges • Release into a canyon (as opposed to emplacement from radioactive treatment plants, sanitary treatment plants, on a dry mesa top)
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. supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material, LANL has given generally lower priority to underresulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations standing and controlling its solid waste emplacements than and from community activities.
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These actinides have much longer radioactive half-lives than tritium, so they are usually of greater concern for groundwater protection. SOURCE: Del Signore and Watkins, 2005.
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. The Los proposed for disposal of these materials today, what types of Alamos County wastewater treatment facility in Pueblo assessment and engineering controls would be required?
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. Sidebar 3.1 LANL acquires samples from groundwater monitoring wells in alluvial, perched-intermediate, and regional aquifer zones; describes typical steps in groundwater sampling and analysis.
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. Colloids are ubiquitous, of a large, mobile inventory with a topographically focused naturally occurring or anthropogenic organic or inorganic water source are sufficient to drive non-sorbing contaminants particles, typically smaller than 1 micron in diameter, that through the thick unsaturated zone to the regional aquifer remain suspended in water (Stumm, 1992)
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Colloids are naturally occurring particles, defined as ranging in size from 0.1 to 0.001 micrometer. Colloids are found in nearly all surface water and groundwater and are formed as a result of weathering of rocks, soils, and plants.
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For gives its views about how LANL can not only provide example, the Synthesis Report (LANL, 2005a) that sum- more comprehensible summaries of contamination sources marizes site characterization under the workplan is some and their importance, but also demonstrate mastery of 300 pages long but contains only a 50-page description of groundwater protection fundamentals to a broad audience groundwater chemistry with no discussion of how this chem- of stakeholders.
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PLANS AND PRACTICES FOR GROUNDWATER PROTECTION AT THE LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY TABLE 3.3 Frequencies of Detections of Key Contaminants in LANL Groundwater Analyte Number of Analyses Number of Detections Frequency of Detections (percent) Chromium Alluvial UF (UF = unfiltered)
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From page 29... ...
chemical plant or a refinery; see Sidebar 3.4. Applied to This is frequently true for solid sources disposed of in dry groundwater protection, developing mass balances would locations.
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This application of mass balance, essentially a means by which LANL can succinctly display its knowledge and uncertainties of the amounts and locations of contaminants on the site, is the use envisioned by the committee. Reducing uncertainties identified in performing mass balance can help guide future work in LANL's groundwater protection program.
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From page 31... ...
tion by controlling or removing the source is typically the 3.03 Type B uncertainty is equally or perhaps more important simplest, quantifying the buildup of contaminants that have than Type A at this stage of LANL's groundwater protection moved outside their source into the vadose zone and interme- program. Two examples of Type B uncertainty at LANL are diate aquifers can inform decisions for continued monitoring the following: or active remediation along a pathway.
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control its contamination sources, with emphasis on longer One such database is a part of the RACER program, a term concerns that have not been addressed during the first DOE-funded interactive relational database that allows easy portion of the groundwater protection program. visualization and analysis of large datasets.7 Produced by the Solid wastes (e.g., the 25 MDAs)
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SOURCE: Risk Assessment Corporation. There are still large uncertainties in LANL's estimates mation is insufficient to determine quantities of major of the inventories of principal contaminant sources and contaminants disposed and to confirm the degree of their locations.
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should help LANL account for contaminant sources, releases, This is a gap in LANL's current groundwater protection radioactive decay, and migration through the hydrogeologic program. system in a way that is transparent and understandable to all of its stakeholders.
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