Strata-G LLC has won a $1 million contract from the Energy Department to conduct environmental sampling at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
The sampling will support DOE plans for construction of an additional on-site disposal facility for hazardous and radioactive wastes at the Bear Creek Valley area of Oak Ridge, DOE said in a Monday news release.
The Knoxville, Tenn.-based company, which is described as veteran-owned small business, will drill 16 wells to study groundwater and surface water. It will also collect soil samples at the Bear Creek Valley site, which is located on federal land west of the Y-12 National Security Complex, DOE said. Strata-G has done other work for Oak Ridge in the past.
The department will use the data to help determine if the site would support the preferred site for the new Environmental Management Disposal Facility. Fieldwork is due to wrap up on April, and a final report to be published later this year.
The current waste disposal facility has operated for about 15 years and is approaching capacity, DOE said. The new facility would take waste from cleanup at Y-12 and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to the federal agency.
A formal proposal is anticipated later this year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and Oak Ridge, DOE said in the release.
The Energy Department has been considering the Environmental Management Disposal Facility for a number of years and hopes to open it in the “mid-2020s,” Oak Ridge spokesman Ben Williams said by telephone Monday. Cost estimates and other specifications will be developed during the procurement process for the site, Williams said.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has granted the Department of Energy and two other responsible parties at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory a deadline extension until mid-April to begin baseline air monitoring at the cleanup site.
NASA, acting on behalf of Boeing and DOE, asked the state agency in late November for permission to move the deadline from Feb. 10 until April 15. The parties said more time was needed for construction, delivery, and installation of air monitoring stations. DTSC spokesman Russ Edmondson said by email Friday the request had been granted.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control first asked the three parties for a final map illustrating the proposed air sampling locations. After receiving the map on Jan. 29, the state granted the extension the next day. It informed the parties air monitoring should start “as soon as possible” but no later than April 15.
The state wants the baseline air monitoring information to gauge the level of dust and pollutants at the Southern California site prior to the beginning of environmental remediation. California has targeted 2019 for cleanup to begin at Santa Susana, which was used for various rocket engine tests and nuclear energy research for more than five decades.
The two-month delay in beginning air monitoring should not slow the start of cleanup, Edmondson said. The state has said environmental remediation of the 2,849-acre property located 30 miles from Los Angeles should be finished in 2034.
In addition to air monitoring, groundwater monitoring and treatment, the work at SSFL will include excavation and off-site disposal of 2.5 million cubic yards of soil, with DOE responsible for 1.26 million cubic yards. The Energy Department has said the cost of soil remediation at its section of the site could run anywhere from $100 million to $1.6 billion, based on what cleanup option is eventually chosen.
