Snake River Plain Aquifer

 at Risk ^[1]

June 2003

I. Summary                                                                                      

            The preponderance of data currently available to the Environmental Defense Institute at the time of this writing clearly indicate that there is a major public health and safety hazard looming related to the migration of Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) waste discharges.  This pollution is currently contaminating the Snake River Plain Aquifer that eventually will (if not already) threaten all downstream users of this sole source aquifer, as well as communities along the Snake River due to huge aquifer contribution to the river volume. Immediate action is needed by federal and state regulators, in addition to public pressure, to ensure that all tank waste, buried radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes are exhumed (into safe interim storage), and that continued dumping of INEEL liquid process waste into unlined percolation ponds is terminated because it facilitates the flushing of pollution into the aquifer. Time is of the essence, since every day that goes by, more of this deadly pollution migrates beyond any means of mitigation. The hazard of INEEL contaminates extends to most of Idaho via the Snake River. Arguably, since the Snake River is a primary tributary to the Columbia River, the INEEL contaminate impact zone extends to northern Oregon and southern Washington states.

II. Snake River Plain Aquifer

            In 1991 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that the Snake River Plain Aquifer is a “sole source aquifer.” Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA can determine that an area has an aquifer that is the sole or principal drinking water source for the area and if contamination would create a significant hazard to public health. The Snake River Aquifer is the sole water source for nearly one fourth of Idahoans (<200,000 residents), second only in size/volume to the Ogallala Aquifer in northern Texas and southern Oklahoma.  The Snake River Aquifer flows to the south and southwest (starting near Island Park Reservoir on the east and Bliss on the west) and covers an area of 9,611 square miles.  Water storage in the aquifer is estimated at two billion acre-feet, and a drainage area of 35,000 square miles. ^[2]

            On a total per capita water usage basis, Idaho ranks first in the nation with 22,000 gallons/person/day - with second place going to Wyoming at 13,052 gal/person/day. ^[3]University of Idaho, publication  #877, herein after called  UIWR..  So much water is being drawn from the aquifer that the water table has dropped three feet in the late 1980's. [AP(a),1/1/­89]  Munici­pal water for 41 communi­ties also adds to the drain on this aqui­fer.  [UI WR # 887]­  Three years of drought have exacer­bated these conditions requiring even greater demands on the aqui­fer. [AP(a),­1/1/89] Drought conditions contin­ue with June 1992 Snake River average flow of 3.7 billion gallons per day. The previous low was in 1977 at 5.2 billion gallons per day. [Times-News(d)] USGS studies show Snake River Plain Aquifer draw_down in excess of recharge is 410,000 acre feet/yr. [Times News (f) 7/19/92] Recharge from the 1996-1997 winter show pack run off halted this trend but it is unclear whether previous loses were completely made up.

             The Snake River Aquifer via spring discharges (ranging from Bliss, Idaho on the west to American Falls Reservoir near Pocatello, Idaho on the east) provides in the summer months the entire flow (due to upstream irrigation) of the Snake River. See attached USGS maps.  Thus the aquifer supplies (in the summer months) all the communities downstream that rely on the river as their primary water source.  The US Geological Survey  has identified 19 major springs, in an area called Thousand Springs, that discharge to the Snake River starting with Devils Washbowl (near Kimberly, about 10 miles east of Twin Falls) on the east and ending with Birch Creek (about 3 miles west of Hagerman) on the west. ^[4]   There are also significant aquifer discharges to the Snake River further east in the vicinity of American Falls Reservoir west of Pocatello. DOE estimates that the aquifer discharges 7.1 million acre feet (8,754 trillion cubic meters) of groundwater into the Snake River every year. ^[5]

            The hazard of INEEL contaminates extends to most of Idaho via the Snake River. Arguably, since the Snake River is a tributary to the Columbia River, the INEEL contaminate impact zone extends to northern Oregon and southern Washington states. A State of Oregon report found that after the DOE Hanford nuclear reactors in Washington State were shut down and ended direct discharges to the Columbia River, the highest radioactive pollutant contributor to the Columbia was the Snake River. ^[6]

III. Pollution Threats to the Aquifer

            The State of Idaho now finally, but quietly in Federal Court briefs, acknowledges that: “Over the years approximately twenty (20) thousand gallons of high-level radioactive waste have leaked into soil and groundwater at INEEL. ^[7]  DOE’s own earlier internal reports note:

"Radioactive, inorganic, and organic wastes releases from active and inactive waste sites have resulted in contamination of the Snake River Aquifer. Some of the injection wells, such as at Test Reactor Area, Power Burst Facili­ty, Test Area North, and ICPP, dis­posed of the wastes directly into the Snake River Aqui­fer.  Significant spills and leaks have frequently occurred over INEEL's history.  Most spills have been the result of line and tank failures, leaking valves, and equipment and tank overfilling.  [Spill and/or leak] volumes range up to 45,000 gal.  It should be noted that rather large quanti­ties of chemi­cals were routinely disposed of via the ICPP disposal well." ^[8]

     These waste discharges are the most deadly material in the world. Direct contact for only a few minutes of this high-level waste would result in death from the radiation exposure.  To offer a perspective, EPA knows this material is so deadly that its emission regulations are in units of pico curies or one trillionth of one curie.  Over 10 million gallons containing more than 50 million curies of high-level waste have already been “processed” in unpermitted unregulated INEEL waste operations. ^[9]   Due to DOE’s non-compliant waste processing plants, in operation today, much of the radioactive pollution is simply exhausted out the stack unimpeded by state and federal regulators. ^[10]

     Because of flooding of the INEEL dump, another eleven billion gallons previously injected directly into the aquifer, along with an additional current discharge of ~2 million gallons every day to unlined percolation ponds, these liquid radioactive waste disposal sites pose a significant hazard due to contaminates being flushed through the soil column to the aquifer.  US Geological Survey (USGS) reports show the hydro-geologic vulnerability of the INEEL buried waste sites. Flooding incidents have already occurred in 1952,1962, 1969, and 1982, and these sites are within the Big Lost River 100-year flood plain.  This is where DOE plans to permanently leave buried waste and dispose of high-level and transuranic non-liquid waste currently in tank sediments.

     The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), together with two northwest Native American Tribes, filed a lawsuit challenging this DOE high-level waste disposal policy. ^[11]

     The INEEL radioactive waste dump is located in a regional depression about 40 feet lower than the Big Lost River that flows immediately north of the dump. Buried or otherwise dumped radioactive high-level and transuranic waste is currently contaminating the Snake River Plain Aquifer. The State of Idaho reported plutonium in the aquifer under the INEEL dump at 66 pCi/L or 4.4 times above the drinking water standard of 15 pCi/L. ^[12] Depending on the species of plutonium, its toxic half-life can be as long as 24,000 years.^[13]

     US Geologic Survey (USGS) conducted a study of the INEEL RWMC burial ground

plutonium propensity to migrate and found that plutonium: “is soluble in the water from the perched aquifer, and in time could be leached from the waste.  Once dissolved, it could persist in solution and ultimately reach the Snake River Plain aquifer. Nevertheless, to conclude that the plutonium in the waste would not leach into the ground water over a period of time is not warranted. In addition, americium, although relatively insoluble and not subject to oxidation-state changes, could ultimately be leached from the waste to a small but radiologically significant extent.” ^[14] [emphasis added]

     More recent USGS reports show plutonium-239/239/240, americium-241, and cesium-137 in aquifer wells some twenty miles southwest of the INEEL boundary.^[15] Although these off-site plutonium concentrations (0.013 pCi/L) are well below the EPA safe drinking water standard, independent scientists argue the standard is not protective of human health. Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., a nationally recognized independent analyst of DOE’s operations, discusses risks to the Snake River Aquifer from INEEL waste in a recently released book, Poison in the Vadose Zone where he states:

“It should be noted, however, the Safe Drinking Water standard of 15 picocuries per liter for alpha emitting transuranics like plutonium-238, plutonium-239, or americium-241 allows doses on the order of a hundred times higher than the 4 millirem annual limit specified for most beta emitters. A concentration of plutonium of only about 0.08 picocuries per liter in drinking water is required to produce a dose of 4 millirem per year to the bone surface (the crucial organ for plutonium).” “The Safe Drinking Water standard specifies dose limits, concentrations limits, and calculation procedures for doses that are not consistent and are more stringent in some cases (such as nickel-63, cesium-137, and tritium) and less stringent in others, notably transuranic radionuclides and strontium-90.  Since the latter are among those presenting the most serious threats in Idaho, a more conservative approach that would limit groundwater contamination from transuranics is warranted.  None of these limits take into account the potentially more serious problems arising from fetal [unborn baby] exposure.” ^[16]

        Idaho has recently discontinued monitoring for plutonium and americium at off-site wells for no reported reason. ^[17]  Also the State acknowledges that chromium (a known carcinogen) “exceeded the drinking water [standard] MCL of 100 ug/l” by 161%. ^[18] 

     Federal drinking water maximum contaminate level (MCL) standards recognize that radioactive pollutants are cumulative. For instance, in a given water sample, individual contaminates may be below the individual MCL, however collectively the sum of the individual contaminates can exceed the standard. ^[19]   The collective contamination is estimated by adding the sum of the ratios of the actual level of each radionuclide to the MCL for that radionuclide. If the sum of the ratios for all radionuclides is less than one, (or less than 100%) the sample complies with the standard.

     Although the federal standards provide for cumulative radionuclide contaminates, they do not accommodate the cumulative hazard posed by both radioactive and toxic chemical contamination, which is the case with the Snake River Aquifer.  IEER’s Poison in the Vados Zones report took a scientifically defensible approach to conservatively evaluate the cumulative ground water hazard.

            “While each single pollutant as well as the sum of the radionuclide pollution percentages are currently less than allowable drinking water limits [at some INEEL sample wells], the commutative burden is greater than the allowable drinking water limits in the [INEEL] RWMC well [by 146%], if TCE and carbon tetrachloride are added.  This is a standard procedure for radionuclides.  However, it is not mandated for hazardous chemicals, even though it provides a reasonable estimate of the quality of the water.  It is not the most conservative way to estimate the impact of the pollutants in the water, since simple addition ignores synergistic effects between various hazardous chemicals and between hazardous chemicals and radionuclides.” ^[20]

     USGS samples taken in 1991 at INTEC found radioactive Iodine-129 near INTEC 3.82 times above the drinking water standard. ^[21]   A 1993 USGS report found Iodine-129 from INEEL INTEC’s 3.4 square mile ground water plume, in two wells eight miles south of the INEEL boundary near Big Southern Butte. ^[22] Earlier USGS studies show aquifer Iodine-129 concentrations at 41 pCi/L. ^[23]  Iodine-129, a byproduct of the fission or uranium is of concern because of its 15.7 million-year half-life, and its known ability (like iodine-131) to lodge in the thyroid causing cancer.  Because of this it is considered by EPA to be a permanent environmental pollutant and the drinking water standard for I-129 is set by EPA at one (1) pCi/l.

     Radioactive tritium from INEEL dumping reported by DOE in 1992 at 3,940,000 pCi/L ^[24] has migrated the 50 miles via the aquifer to the Snake River.  USGS 1994-99 spring discharges to the Snake River sampling data show significant tritium concentrations of 65 pCi/L in the Twin Falls and Hagerman areas. The highest tritium concentrations were found in the eastern aquifer discharges to the Snake River at Devils Washbowl near Kimberly, Idaho.  ^[25]    

     USGS reports also show groundwater flow, or “conductivity” in the Snake River Plain Aquifer can reach 32,000 feet per day, or 6.06 miles per day. ^[26] Contaminates discharged at INEEL have the potential to move rapidly through the aquifer to public water sources and to the Snake River. This rapid flow is attributed to the basalt lava flows underlying INEEL that have gaps called “lava tubes” that can “conduct” large amounts of water. ^[27]

     A 2001 USGS report analyzed the relative “age” of different water strata within the Snake River Aquifer using sophisticated analytic tools that measure dissolved elements to determine how recently the water was on the surface.  The study found that 20-50% of the aquifer water is between 14 and 21 years “old” (length of time since it was last on the surface before becoming subsurface aquifer recharge). The study also found chlorofluorocarbon gases generated from INEEL chemical waste discharges about 20 kilometers south of the INEEL boundary. ^[28]  This USGS  “age” study of the aquifer indicates a relatively rapid “turnover” of groundwater in the aquifer.  The ramification being that radioactive and chemical contaminates in the aquifer are also likely moving as rapidly with the water through the aquifer.  These findings are consistent with previously discussed sampling of aquifer spring discharges into the Snake River containing radioactive tritium that has a half-life of about seven years. These USGS research findings moreover contrast dramatically with DOE’s public claims that contaminates discharged at INEEL will take hundreds or thousands of years to reach the Snake River via the aquifer.

     INEEL, over its operating history, has received significant quantities of spent reactor fuel from dozens of sources and recent minimal (non-compliant) cleanup costs run between as 21  and 44.3 billion dollars. ^[29]  Basically, this far exceeds the cumulative costs of all public works (including dams) in the history of the State of Idaho.  And who will pay? Not the DOE contractors who, thanks to DOE, mostly have loopholes so they pay no taxes.  The American taxpayer is left with the bill. Even regulatory violation penalties on INEEL operators are passed on by DOE contractors as expenses for doing business at INEEL and are thus paid by the taxpayer!

     A high percentage of this INEEL irradiated reactor fuel was “reprocessed” using an aqueous process which dissolves the fuel rods in acid/solvent solution that then makes it possible to extract highly enriched uranium and other nuclear isotopes for various United States military programs.  The mixed hazardous and high-level radioactive liquid waste and transuranic waste left over from this extraction process was then interned primarily but not exclusively in underground storage tanks.  These fifty-year-old tanks were never intended to be the permanent repository for this waste because of the known toxicity of the waste, the limited service life of the tanks themselves, and the fact that at the time (and arguably currently) it was illegal under federal statute. The concrete vaults that encase the eleven high-level 300,000-gallon tanks at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Environmental Center (INTEC), formerly the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, are known to leak.  A 1994 State of Idaho investigation showed that over a twenty-three month period (11/92 - 9/94) about 123,500 gallons of contaminated water was pumped from the tank vault sumps.  The investigation concluded that the source of the water was precipitation, irrigation, and leaking high-level tank waste system lines.^[30]  

     DOE’s reliance on these failed high-level tank containment systems for permanent disposal of high-level waste under a new DOE Order 435.1 is misguided and puts the general public and future generations at significant risk. As previously noted, the Natural Resources Defense Council, together with numerous Native American Tribes, is currently challenging this DOE Order in US Federal Court. ^[31] Because the INEEL sits directly atop the Snake River Plain Aquifer, designated by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a regional sole source aquifer, protection of this aquifer is a main component of the 1995 Settlement Agreement between the State of Idaho and DOE. ^[32]  

     Past and current high-level and transuranic waste mismanagement practices have resulted in massive contamination of the groundwater under the INEEL operations. This recognized groundwater contaminate pathway represents a significant hazard to the general public solely with current contaminate levels. Migration of buried waste contaminates into underlying soil and perched ground-water zones is extensively studied by US Geologic Survey and their report notes:  “These zones are an integral part of the pathway for contaminates to move to the Snake River Plain Aquifer.  Water moves rapidly through surficial [sic] sediments ...” ^[33]  Plutonium-239-240 have been detected under INEEL at 66 pCi/L, or 4.4 times the drinking water standard. ^[34]

IV. DOE Current Actions Pose an Imminent Threat

     The INEEL over its fifty-year operating history has generated on-site, or received via off-site shipments, significant quantities of high-level radioactive nuclear fuel waste (i.e. Nuclear Navy and Hanford reactor fuel), and transuranic waste (i.e. DOE’s Colorado Rocky Flats Site) from fabrication of plutonium nuclear bomb components.  

     INEEL uses many sites (in addition to dumps) for permanent disposal of transuranic waste including injection wells into the aquifer and unlined percolation ponds. ^[35]  The largest and most significant INEEL disposal sites are the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) dump, and the Argonne National Laboratory-West, Radioactive Scrap and Waste Facility, located on the INEEL site. ^[36]  Internal DOE documents, gained by the Environmental Defense Institute (EDI) through Freedom of Information Act requests and other state and federal agency records, show more than ninety (90) metric tons of high-level irradiated reactor fuel was dumped at the RWMC.  EDI’s Amicus brief shows the itemized listing of this irradiated reactor fuel interned at the dump. ^[37]  Generally, in the first several decades of INEEL operation, the only reactor fuel put into storage was fuel the DOE intended to reprocess.  The rest, apparently was simply dumped in the burial ground.

     DOE’s Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado shipped substantial quantities of plutonium waste to INEEL.  EDI’s investigations into these Rocky Flats shipments show that considerably more plutonium was shipped to INEEL and dumped than is disclosed by Idaho or DOE.  EDI’s documentation  contends and further shows that the concentrations of plutonium and highly enriched uranium waste dumped in the INEEL dump poses a significant criticality hazard. ^[38]

         Prior to 1973, all waste shipped to INEEL for burial was simply dumped from the truck into an open pit or trench. Normally only one pit or trench was open at any given time, no sorting or assessment of what was in the barrels or boxes was made. Nuclear waste shippers like the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado knew there would be no assessment of what was listed on the shipping manifest so there was no incentive to do thorough characterization prior to shipment.  Although DOE is not publicly acknowledging the fact, its internal reports show the buried waste contains 11,000,000 curies ^[39] of radioactivity including 1,455 kilograms of plutonium from Rocky Flats alone. ^[40]  According to DOE, the total buried plutonium (2,160 kg) from both Rocky Flats and other sources contains 700,400 curies of radioactivity.  ^[41] 

          The above DOE totals are now known to be grossly understated due to 1996 revelations about Rocky Flats plutonium waste shipments to INEEL. The radioactivity in the INEEL buried waste cited above is still significantly understated because it relies on original Rocky Flats shipping manifest records that are completely unreliable. There were no checks at the INEEL dump to confirm the accuracy of the manifests because these were shipments between DOE facilities.

     These discrepancies were revealed only in the last few years when DOE was forced to disclose (stipulated in international nuclear non-proliferation treaty agreements) where all its nuclear bomb material is located and give precise inventories.  Rocky Flats Plant (largest plutonium waste shipper to INEEL) conducted a physical inventory of plutonium, compared it to the book inventory, and determined that 1,191.8 kg of plutonium was unaccounted for and 953 kg of that total was shipped as waste to INEEL, and not previously acknowledged in shipping manifests. ^[42]

     So how much plutonium is dumped in Idaho?  If the unreported Rocky Flats plutonium shortfall shipped to INEEL (953 kg) is added to what DOE previously thought was in the INEEL dump (2,160 kg) from Rocky Flats and other sources, it adds up to 3,113 kg in the dump from all sources. This is an enormous amount of plutonium (enough for about 1,000 bombs) given that it takes only about three to four kg of plutonium to make a nuclear bomb.^[43]  As previously discussed, this plutonium is migrating from the dump site into the aquifer and, therefore, continues to pose a public health threat.

     A July, 2000 article in the Twin Falls, Idaho Times News discussed how much trouble INEEL is having shipping stored waste to the DOE’s New Mexico transuranic waste dump (WIPP), due mainly to serious underestimates of the total plutonium in each drum. ^[44] Forty-seven barrels of plutonium-contaminated waste couldn’t be shipped because they contained too much plutonium.

V. INEEL Waste Tank Hazard      

     At INEEL, the primary facility for reprocessing irradiated nuclear reactor fuel, is the INTEC formerly known as the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP).  The INTEC underground high-level Tank Farm, consisting of eleven 300,000-gallon tanks with a current volume of about 1.4 million gallons, ^[45]  is only part of a large complex of an additional 127 high-level waste tanks that are part of the INTEC high-level waste operations.  EDI  has listed these 127 tanks, their location and what process they are attached too, however the waste volume of their sediment contents is uncertain. ^[46]  Some of these tanks are a significant criticality hazard due to the high concentration of fissile (uranium and plutonium) material content of the tanks. ^[47] 

     If DOE’s new attempt to obfuscate the legal requirements and allow permanent disposal in these already leaking waste tank units is not stopped, more pollution will migrate to the aquifer, further putting the general public at risk. ^[48]  DOE’s own reports show radioactive groundwater contamination under INTEC greater than 60,000 times, and at Test Reactor Area 176,000 times, the EPA-regulated maximum radionuclide concentration level for drinking water. ^[49]

     The hazard is intensified by the fact that the U.S. Geological Survey report shows that the top ground level of the INTEC high-level Tank Farm is within the Big Lost River 100-year flood plain, which means the bottom of the tanks are some 50 feet below the flood levels. ^[50]  Flooding of these tanks and the related high-level waste processing buildings will flush pollutants into the aquifer and endanger the general public, since these radionuclides are toxic for tens of thousands of years.

1995 ICPP Well Sample Data ^[51]Plan (final) Volume 1, August 1995, Lockheed Idaho Technologies Co.

[INEEL-95/0056@2-162]  [INEEL-95/0056 @ 5-25]

2002 INTEC Perched Ground Water Sample Data ^[52]

* Beta particle/photon radioactivity shall not produce annual dose equivalent to the total body or internal organ greater than 4 millirem per year.

VI. Tank Closure Begins

     The process of closure of these high-level waste tanks at INEEL has begun.  At issue here is not the need to close the tanks, but what federal statutes and the Settlement Agreement stipulations on buried high-level and transuranic waste will be appropriately implemented and enforced to assure proper closure in order to protect the public and environment.  The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) issued a high-level waste tank Closure Plan for two INTEC tanks. ^[54]

     The IDEQ Tank Closure Plan violates environmental regulation that states in pertinent part, “A detailed description of the steps needed to remove or decontaminate all hazardous waste residues and contaminated containment system components, equipment, structures, and soils during partial and final closure including, but not limited to, procedures for cleaning equipment and removing contaminated soils, methods for sampling and testing surrounding soils, and criteria for determining the extent of decontamination necessary to satisfy the closure performance standard.” (Emphasis added). ^[55]  Closure and post-closure care regulation also states “ At closure of a tank system, the owner or operator must remove or decontaminate all waste residues, contaminated containment system components (liners, etc.), contaminated soils, and structures and equipment contaminated with waste, and manage them as hazardous waste.” [Emphasis added] ^[56]  “As such, these liquids contain radioactive fission products in sufficient concentrations to warrant permanent isolation in a geologic repository.” ^[57]

        DOE’s attempt to delist the high-level tank wastes defies its own internal contractor documents that show the history of these tanks.  DOE estimates that about 20,000 gallons of  tank sediment heels are in each of the eleven Tank Farm units which would leave a total of  220,000 gallons permanently interned. ^[58]  

     The bottom line is Idahoans and all communities downstream from INEEL can ill afford to compromise the region’s  most valuable water resource for this and future generations.  The state has already demonstrated its lack of enforcement “due-diligence” by approving a tank closure plan that will permanently leave thousands of gallons of high-level and transuranic waste in place over the aquifer.  This is as much an issue of “homeland security” as fighting terrorists and the Bush Administration must commit the requisite resources to cleaning up the INEEL nuclear legacy of the cold war.  It’s unconscionable that the State of Idaho is actively blocking crucial information offered by EDI, and needed by the federal court and the general public to make informed decisions about the disposition of the INEEL massive waste problem. One can only assume that both the state and DOE want to keep both the court and the public in the dark about the extent of the INEEL problems.

VII. Percolation Pond Dumping Hazard

     The Test Reactor Area extensive use of unlined percolation ponds to dump radioactive and chemical liquid wastes is cited here only as an example of the INEEL site-wide use of this misguided practice.  This deadly pollution will eventually migrate to the Snake River Aquifer. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessments states:

"Contaminates may also form or absorb onto colloidal particles, which allows them to move with, or faster than the average ground­water flow.  Flow can result from an apparently unrelated force, such as the flow of water and contaminates due to a thermal or electrical gradient instead of the expected hydraulic gradient.  Chemical reactions and biotransfor­mation may occur, possibly changing the toxicity or mobility of contaminates. Some contami­nates dissolve and move with the water; some are in the gas phase; others are nonaqueous phase liquids; some are more dense than water and may move in a direc­tion different from groundwa­ter; others may be less dense than water and float on top of it." ^[59] [OTA(a) @ 38]

Liquid Waste Volumes Disposed at TRA ^[60]

[TRA Record of Decision(a) @ 5]

                     Test Reactor Area Perched Ground Water Sample Data

     The above tables and other tables in this report citing EPA Maximum Contaminate Levels (MCL) utilize both the current standards (40 CFR 141.66) that specify a 15 pCi/L gross alpha and a cumulative dose: “If two or more radionuclides are present the sum of their annual dose equivalent to the total dose or to any organ shall not exceed 4 millirem/yr.”   The 4 millirem/year (mrem/yr) dose limit and the EPA 1976 published determination, and listing, for individual radionuclide MCL’s that are based on the 4 mrem/yr limit are used in this report.  EPA attempted unsuccessfully in the late 1970's and again in 1991 to propose changes to these standards.  General public outrage that the standards are not protective of public health resulted in EPA falling back on the original 4 mrem/yr standard.  Thus currently EPA regulations do not show individual radionuclide  MCL’s but the earlier EPA individual 4 mrem/yr radionuclide doses are apparently not in contention. ^[61]    

VIII. Injection Wells Continue Contaminate Migration      

INEEL Radioactive and Chemical Waste Injection Wells

[ICPP RI/FS] [USGS Report 00-4222, DOE/ID-22168]

     The Test Area North (TAN) at INEEL is yet another area were significant radioactive and chemical waste was dumped via injection wells directly into the Snake River Plain Aquifer. 

            Maximum contaminant in TAN TSF-05 injection well sludge

                         [OU 1-07B TAN groundwater RI/FS workplan, Appendix B and G]

[TAN Sludge] [TAN ROD @18][EGG-ER-10643][INEEL-95/0056@5-25]

     The above TAN aquifer sampling data is derived from DOE documents. ^[62]1992, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory  This information on TAN is cited here only as an example to the extensive problem throughout INEEL from the use of direct injection of wastes into the aquifer.

IX. Off INEEL Site Snake River Aquifer Water Sampling

     INEEL’s southern boundary is about 53 miles from the Rupert area and about 110 miles from the Hagerman area (see map below). INEEL over the past five decades has dumped vast quantities of radioactive waste into shallow pits, trenches, and unlined percolation ponds.  Billions of gallons of radioactive waste water was also injected directly into the aquifer until the early 1980's when then Governor Cecil Andrus forced the federal government to end the practice. A 1995 U.S. Geological Survey  report notes:

“In the past, wastewater containing chemical and radio chemical wastes generated at the INEL was discharged mostly to ponds and wells.  Since 1983, most aqueous wastes have been discharged to infiltration ponds.  Many of the constituents in the wastewater enter the aquifer indirectly following percolation through the unsaturated zone.” [DOE/ID-22130,p.3]

     The following tables show U. S. Geologic Survey (USGS) 1989-2001 water sample data from 33 of the 55 monitoring wells in the Snake River Aquifer south of INEEL between Rupert on the east and Bliss/Hagerman on the west.  These monitoring wells are in the Magic Valley group of wells checked by USGS in multi-year sampling campaigns.  The sample data show gross beta and alpha radioactivity over the period and is used as a screening method to determine if additional testing is needed. 

     The comparative water sample data is a means of identifying trends in the migration of radioactive contaminates.  The USGS emphasizes that the Magic Valley monitoring wells remain below the Environmental Protection Agency maximum concentration level (MCL) standard for drinking water. Generally, this is correct except for Well MV-45 located between Bliss and Hagerman, Idaho about 65 miles southwest of INEEL that registered 18.70 + 2.4 for gross alpha.^[63]  The drinking water MCL standard for alpha is 15 pCi/l.  If increasing trends are confirmed, then additional isotope specific tests may be needed to identify the source of the contamination.  As discussed previously, independent experts believe that this “Safe Drinking Water standard of 15 picocuries per liter for alpha emitting transuranics like plutonium-238, plutonium-239, or americium-241 allows doses on the order of a hundred times higher than the 4 millirem annual limit specified for most beta emitters. A concentration of plutonium of only about 0.08 picocuries per liter in drinking water is required to produce a dose of 4 millirem per year to the bone surface (the crucial organ for plutonium).” ^[64]

     The following tables compare  gross beta and gross alpha particle radioactivity, which is a measure of the total radioactivity given off as beta or alpha particles during the radioactive decay process. USGS instruments were calibrated for dissolved cesium-137 (gross beta) and dissolved thorium-230 (gross alpha).  The concentrations of gross beta/alpha particle activity is for reference only and does not imply that the radioactivity is attributed to these specific isotopes.  The numbers in the tables are the mean or middle number between an analytic plus or minus (+ ) uncertainty range published in USGS reports.

Snake River Aquifer Water Sample Data

      Gross Beta (as dissolved Cesium-137)(pCi/L)

Gross Alpha (as dissolved thorium-230) (pCi/L)

Sources for above tables are drawn from USGS:  DOE/ID-22124, DOE/ID-22130, DOE/ID-22133, DOE/ID-22141; DOE-IDO-22161; DOE/ID-22152; DOE/ID-22169; DOE-ID-22176; DOE/ID-22185.

     The above table units abbreviation - pCi/L - stands for pico curies per liter or one trillionth of one curie per liter. The maximum contaminate levels (MCL) for selected radioactivity and selected radionuclides in drinking water is established by the Environmental Protection Agency.  For comparison, the MCL for the beta emitter strontium-90 is 8 pCi/L, and the MCL for cesium-137 it is 120 pCi/L  based on an average concentration assumed to produce a total body or organ dose of 4 millirem per year.  The MCL for gross alpha particulate radioactivity is 15 pCi/L.

     As with all water sampling techniques, there is a range of uncertainty from instrument and sampling procedure variation. So the sample concentration is stated as the mean or middle of the uncertainty range which in turn is stated as plus or minus(+). A slight increase or decrease in different samples from the same well may be a result of this analytic uncertainty or variation.  A major component of uncertainty is the standard deviation which varies with each sample.  USGS uses a factor of two times the sample’s standard deviation to identify the uncertainty range which is noted as a plus or minus number after the mean concentration number.  The USGS uncertainty range appears to vary widely between sampling periods.  For instance the average uncertainty in 1989 and 1990-92 sample campaigns was about 21 percent where as the average uncertainty in 1994-95 was nearly 60 percent.  More detailed testing of a broad range of isotopes may be needed to identify the sources of this well contamination. The State INEEL Oversight Program, Idaho State University, and the Environmental Research Foundation are also doing testing, however their instruments are according to USGS, a thousand times less sensitive than the USGS’s National  Water Quality Laboratory.  The usefulness of the above tables is to demonstrate trends in contaminate levels in the Snake River Aquifer south of the INEEL and factor this information into waste management decisions.

X. Clean Water Act Violations

     David McCoy did a legal analysis that, among other issues, identified major Clean Water Act violations at INEEL.^[65] McCoy notes that the INTEC (located at INEEL) lies within the 100 year floodplain of the Big Lost River.  The INTEC facilities service wastewater system and the Percolation Ponds are also located within the 100 year floodplain of the Big Lost River.

     DOE Order 5400.1 requires DOE to comply with the mandatory requirements of Executive Order 11988 for Floodplain Management and Executive Order 11990 for Protection of Wetlands. (See 10 CFR 1022 et seq.).

     DOE Order 5400.1 requires DOE to comply with the requirements of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.  DOE violates DOE Order 5400.1 and the Clean Water Act by its failure to obtain a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the INTEC facilities.

     The INTEC facilities are considered point sources under the CWA.  33 U.S.C. § 1362(14). 

     Section 301 of the CWA, 33 U.S.C. § 1311(a) prohibits the discharge of any pollutant from a point source into the waters of the United States unless such discharge is permitted in a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.  As shown below, DOE has discharged pollutants including hazardous wastes and radionuclides to the waters of the United states without a NPDES permit, in violation of § 301(a) of the CWA, 33 U.S.C. §1311(a).

     The INTEC facilities do not have a NPDES permit.

     The unlined Percolation Ponds at INTEC, which receive the point source wastes from the  HLLWE and the other INTEC facilities, are surface impoundments located in the floodplain above the Snake River Plain Aquifer which is hydrologically connected to and part of the Snake River. The Snake River and its aquifer are waters of the United States.  Waters of the United States include waters that are tributary to navigable waters.  Congress intended to regulate the discharge of any pollutants that could affect surface waters of the United States, whether it reaches the surface water directly or through groundwater. 

     The  INTEC Percolation Ponds discharge water into the waters of the United States, but DOE has failed to obtain a NPDES permit for the ponds. Also see US District Court for Idaho ruling in Idaho Rural Council v. Bosma, No. CV-99-0581-S-BLW. where Judge Winmill ruled in favor of the citizen suit alleging noncompliance with NPDES  permit. The court ruling acknowledges that if toxic waste ends up in surface waters, then it is covered under the Clean Water Act.

     The USGS scientific studies show INEEL discharged waste eventually flows to the Snake River Plain Aquifer that then discharges to the Snake River, and federal court rulings document that the Clean Water Act regulations apply to INEEL toxic waste discharges. Court rulings state:

“Congress intended to regulate ‘discharges of pollutants that could affect surface waters for the United States,’ the rationale supporting this conclusion is simple and persuasive: ‘since the goal of the CWA is to protect the quality of surface waters, any pollutant which enters such waters, whether directly or through groundwater, is subject to regulation by NPDES permit. Stated even more simply, whether pollution is introduced by a visible, above-ground conduit or enters the surface water through the aquifer matters little to the fish, waterfowl, and recreational users which are affected by the degradation of our nation’s rivers and streams.” ^[66]

XI. Conclusion

     This report is not, and cannot claim to offer all the relevant information related to the INEEL impact on the Snake River Plain Aquifer. Nonetheless, we feel compelled to offer this “snapshot” in the interest of expanding the information base upon which the residents of the northwest can make informed decisions on the disposition of INEEL’s radioactive and chemical wastes. Much is at stake, and DOE’s gross past waste mismanagement may well continue into the future if fundamental changes are not implemented.

     Fundamentally, given the long half-life of radioactive contaminates, and the fact that toxic chemicals have NO half-life, it makes no difference when various water samples were collected because this pollution will eventually reach somebody’s water tap since it is already in the water system. The limited data currently available to the Environmental Defense Institute at the time of this writing, clearly indicate that there is a major public health and safety hazard looming related to the migration of the INEEL waste discharges and plans to permanently leave huge quantities of waste, in effect, create a “nuclear sacrifice zone.”  This pollution is currently, and will continue for millennia, contaminating the Snake River Aquifer Plain Aquifer that eventually will (if not currently do) threaten all downstream (including Oregon and Washington) users of this regional water source. Immediate action is needed by federal and state regulators, in addition to public pressure, to ensure that tank waste, buried radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes are exhumed, and that continued dumping of INEEL process waste into unlined percolation ponds is terminated. Time is of the essence, since every day that goes by, more of this deadly pollution migrates beyond any means of mitigation.

XII. Attachments:

USGS maps that show locations of off-site INEEL Snake River Plain Aquifer Sample Wells and Snake River Plain Aquifer discharge springs into the Snake River noted in this report. These attachments however are not available in the electronic version of this report, but are available upon request.

XIII. References:

Citizens Guide to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Environmental Defense Institute,  Chuck Broscious, Revised 2002.

 Comprehensive Remedial Investigation / Feasibility Study for Argonne National Laboratory-West Operable Unit 9-04 at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy

DOE/ID-12111; Summaries of the INEL Radio­ecology and Ecology Program,  O. Markham, June 1987

DOE/ID/121­19; INEL Historical Dose Evalua­tion, USDOE ID Opera­tions Office, Aug 1991

DOE/ID-22071; Capacity of the Diversion Channel Below the Flood Control Dam on the Big Lost River at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, US Geological Survey, Investigations Report 86-4204, C. Bennett, October 1986

DOE/ID-22109; Statistical Summaries of Streamflow Data for Selected Gauging Stations on and near the

      Idaho National  Engineering Laboratory through 1990, US Geological Survey Investigations

       Report             92-4196, M. Stone, L. Mann, L.Kjelstrom, 1993

DOE/ID-22124; Radionuclides, Stable Isotopes, Inorganic Constituents, and Organic Compounds in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1994, U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 95-718, October 1995, R. Bartholomay, L. Williams

DOE/ID-22125; Chemical Constituents in Water from Wells in the Vicinity of the Naval Reactors Facility, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho 1994-95, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 95-725

DOE/ID-22130; Radionuclides, Stable Isotopes, Inorganic Constituents, and Organic Compounds in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1991-93, U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 95-725, November 1995, B. Tucker, L.Knobel, R. Bartholomay

DOE/ID-22133; Evaluation of Radionuclide, Inorganic Constituent, and Organic Compound Data from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1989 through 1992, U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 97-4007, January 1997, R. Bartholomay, L. Williams

DOE/ID-22139; Preliminary Delineation of Natural Geochemical reactions, Snake River Plain Aquifer System,

      Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, US Geological Survey, Water Resources Investigations Report 97-4093, May 1997

DOE/ID-22141; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1996, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 97-360

DOE/ID-22143; Chemical and Radiochemical Constituents in Water from Wells in the Vicinity of the Naval Reactors Facility, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho 1994-95, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 97-806

DOE/ID-22152; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1997, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 98-646

DOE/ID-22155; Geologic Controls of Hydraulic Conductivity in the Snake River Plain Aquifer at and Near the INEEL, Idaho, US Geological Survey, Report 99-4033, February 1999.

DOE/ID-22161; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1998, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 99-473

DOE/ID-22169; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 1999, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 00-399

DOE/ID-22175; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in Water from Selected Wells South of INEEL, Open

      File Report 01-138, May 2001.

DOE/ID-22176; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in Water from Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to the Hagerman Area, Idaho 2000, US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 01-358

DOE/ID-22180; Tritium in Flow from Selected Springs that Discharge to the Snake River, Twin Falls - Hagerman Area, Idaho, 1994-99, Open File Report 02-185, May 2002

DOE/ID-22181; Estimating the Magnitude of the 100-Year Peak Flow in the Big Lost River at the INEEL, Idaho, USGS Water Resources Investigations Report 02-4299, http://idaho.usgs.gov/public/reports.html

DOE/ID-22185; Radiochemical and Chemical Constituents in the Water From Selected Wells and Springs from the Southern Boundary of the INEEL To the Hagherman Area, Idaho, 2001, US Geological Survey Open File Report 03-168, April 2003.

For More Information Contact

Environmental Defense Institute

P.O. Box 220, Troy, Idaho 83871

208-835-6162

email: edinst@tds.net  website: http://personalpages.tds.net/~edinst