![]() “The amount of environmental cleanup work that crews have completed is impressive,” said Fred Hughes, program manager for the DOE’s INL Site contractor Fluor Idaho. An additional well was completed this past summer to help target a residual trichloroethylene source zone in the aquifer that was inaccessible using existing wells. In addition, bioremediation is in progress and consists of injecting sodium lactate or a similar product into a contaminant plume in the aquifer to create conditions favorable for naturally occurring microorganisms to “feed” on the waste. Water treatment: At the north end of the site, more than 825 million gallons of water have been treated with a pump-and-treat system during the past 20 years. Sampling and analysis of thousands of vapor samples has shown that performance goals and remedy objectives were achieved early, according to the DOE.īoth of those projects-removing waste from the landfill and use of the vacuum-extraction units-were designed to protect the Snake River Plain Aquifer, which lies 585 feet below the landfill surface. ![]() Three vacuum-extraction units that removed more than 258,000 pounds of solvent vapors from beneath the landfill and destroyed them with catalytic oxidation technology were turned off in August 2020 to determine if vapor concentrations would meet remediation goals under natural conditions. The work: As a recent example, crews will finish a project about 18 months ahead of schedule that has removed more than 10,250 cubic meters, or more than 49,000 drums, of radioactive and hazardous waste from an unlined Cold War landfill known as the Subsurface Disposal Area. “It provides the regulatory framework that we still use today to complete our cleanup work.” ![]() “This agreement has stood the test of time,” said Connie Flohr, the DOE's Office of Environmental Management manager for the Idaho Cleanup Project. In the 30 years since the agreement was signed, waste sites, consisting of unlined wastewater disposal ponds, debris piles, radioactive groundwater plumes, buried barrels and boxes of radioactive and hazardous wastes, and unexploded ordnance, have all been evaluated-and most of the cleanup is complete, according to the DOE.
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