August 14, 2014

680 Pounds of Chromium Removed From Near Columbia River This Fiscal Year

By ExchangeMonitor

Pump and treat systems at Hanford have removed more than 680 pounds of hexavalent chromium from groundwater near the Columbia River so far this fiscal year. The Department of Energy’s goal was to remove about 550 pounds by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, an objective that DOE and CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. met four months early. In Fiscal Year 2012 more than 1,000 pounds of chromium was removed from near the river and in FY 2013 about 871 pounds of chromium were removed, beating a goal set that year of 500 pounds of chromium. Goals are set that are lower than previous years’ work because removing the same amount of chromium takes more effort as the concentration of chromium in the plumes near the rivers decreases.

Concentrations of the chromium in the groundwater have decreased both because of work to treat groundwater and an aggressive effort to dig up contaminated soil that was providing a source of pollution for the groundwater. The largest source of chromium contamination near the Columbia River at Hanford has been removed after workers dug up contaminated soil down to groundwater 85 feet deep in the area near the former D and DR reactors along the Columbia River. The throughput of Hanford’s five pump and treat plants also has been increased and CH2M Hill has determined where the highest concentration of chromium remains and has placed new wells strategically.

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