South Carolina’s health department recently hit the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site with two notices, but no fines, for violations in water and emissions sampling.
According to a recent site update, SRS received a notice of violation (NOV) in February from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) for “failure to obtain the required number of domestic water samples in December 2016.” SRS routinely samples the water on and near the site to ensure it does not contain undesired amount of bacteria. SCDHEC found that for one particular sampling, SRS only obtained seven samples instead of the required 10.
“All of the sample results were fully compliant and the NOV contained no fines or penalties,” the site wrote in the update. Because of the violation, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations contractor, was required to post a public notification.
The DOE site received a separate violation from SCDHEC on March 20. The air emissions sampler in the site’s 291-F stack, one of many facilities where monitoring takes place, was out of service last year from May 31 through Nov. 1 due to issues with a flow transmitter. During that period, SRS conducted sampling from an alternate location near the stack; however, the health agency determined the location did not “meet requirements to collect data necessary to perform modeling to determine offsite exposure.”
The violation carried no penalties, but required SRS to document the accuracy of a new flow meter and report to SCDHEC by April 15.
