Groundwater Monitoring Plan for the Hanford Site 216-B-3 Pond RCRA Facility

Abstract

The 216-B-3 Pond was a series of ponds for disposal of liquid effluent from past Hanford production facilities. In 1990, groundwater monitoring at B Pond was elevated from "detection" to assessment status because total organic halides and total organic carbon were found to exceed critical means in two wells. Groundwater quality assessment, which ended in 1996, failed to find any specific hazardous waste contaminant that could have accounted for the isolated occurrences of elevated total organic halides and total organic carbon. Hence, the facility was subsequently returned to detection-level monitoring in 1998. Exhaustive groundwater analyses during the assessment period indicated that only two contaminants, tritium and nitrate, could be positively attributed to the B Pond System, with two others (arsenic and I-129) possibly originating from B Pond. Chemical and radiological analyses of soil at the main pond and 216-B-3-3 ditch has not revealed significant contamination. Based on the observed, minor contamination in groundwater and in the soil column, three parameters were selected for site-specific, semiannual monitoring; gross alpha, gross beta, and specific conductance. Total organic halides and total organic carbon are included as constituents because of regulatory requirements. Nitrate, tritium, arsenic, and iodine-129 will be monitored under the aegis of Hanford site-wide monitoring. Although the B Pond System is not scheduled to advance from RCRA interim status to final status until the year 2003, a contingency plan for an improved monitoring strategy, which will partially emulate final status requirements, will be contemplated before the official change to final status. This modification will allow a more sensible and effective screening of groundwater for the facility.

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