RICHLAND, Wash. - Hanford Site workers developed innovative solutions to reduce maintenance needs, keeping groundwater treatment systems operating efficiently to meet cleanup goals in fiscal year 2017.
Six pump-and-treat facilities pump contaminated groundwater through wells, transfer the water to treatment systems to remove contaminants, and return treated water to the aquifer through injection wells.
The EM Richland Operations Office contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company workers:
* Added steel liners to the bottom of treatment tanks to increase their durability and prevent corrosion;
* Expanded the capacity of one facility along the Columbia River, which runs through the site, from 550 gallons per minute to 700 gallons per minute, a 25-percent increase;
* Brought new treatment vessels online to strip contaminants from groundwater; and
* Realigned wells to extract groundwater from the most contaminated areas and respond to shifting contaminant plumes to ensure maximum containment.
Five facilities along the river remove hexavalent chromium, a toxic chemical used during the past plutonium production era, from groundwater. A large pump-and-treat facility in the center of the site removes about a dozen contaminants, including radioactive elements.
During the past fiscal year, workers treated 2.2 billion gallons of groundwater and removed more than 145,000 pounds of contamination left over from plutonium production.
“Treating 2.2 billion gallons was an incredible challenge, but the team got it done by coming up with new processes and ideas to enhance our groundwater treatment program," CH2M Groundwater Treatment Program Operations Supervisor Eric Bertrand said.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
