Visiting
scientists observe the E-Tunnel South Portal at the Rainier
Mesa/Shoshone Mountain groundwater characterization area during an
October 2017 field trip to the Nevada National Security Site.
The
DOE Environmental Management program in Nevada recently completed
groundwater characterization activities at the Rainier Mesa/Shoshone
Mountain (RM/SM) section of the NNSS. The State of Nevada’s Department
of Environmental Protection (NDEP) approved DOE’s closure report on
April 1.
With
the earlier completion of work at Frenchman Flat, about half of all
groundwater characterization areas at the NNSS have now reached the
long-term monitoring stage.
“With
Rainier Mesa/Shoshone Mountain now in long-term monitoring, we are
nearly halfway to the safe, secure, and successful completion of our
groundwater characterization mission at the NNSS,” said Todd Shrader,
principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Environmental
Management.
After
careful review and analysis of groundwater modeling in partnership with
NDEP, the EM Nevada Program was successful in developing a modeling
strategy to accelerate the closure process at RM/SM, while maintaining
full regulatory compliance to best protect people and the environment.
As a result, the EM Nevada Program was able to achieve closure at RM/SM
under budget and ahead of schedule.
“I’m
incredibly proud of our team for successfully bringing the RM/SM
characterization area to closure nearly three years early, helping to
save $5 million in federal funding,” said Rob Boehlecke, EM Nevada
Program manager.
From
1951 to 1992, more than 800 underground nuclear tests were conducted at
the NNSS. About one-third of these tests occurred near, below, or
within the water table — the groundwater layer where rock and soil are
completely saturated with water. As a result, some groundwater was
contaminated. In the mid-1990s, the federal government and the State of
Nevada reached a legal agreement outlining various cleanup and
monitoring commitments, known as the Federal Facility Agreement and
Consent Order (FFACO).
Since
that time, EM Nevada Program scientists have conducted extensive
investigations involving the sampling, modeling, and monitoring of
groundwater contamination. Closure is the final stage of the
FFACO-guided process, in which controls are established to restrict
access to contaminated groundwater, institutional requirements are set,
and a long-term monitoring program is implemented to ensure that the
characterization results remain within regulatory guidelines.
Other
organizations that contributed to the successful completion of the
RM/SM closure approval process included: Navarro Research and
Engineering, Inc.; Mission Support and Test Services, LLC; the Desert
Research Institute; the U.S. Geological Survey; the Los Alamos National
Laboratory; and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
For more information about groundwater characterization at the NNSS, click here. |
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