Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 24, 2000 Page: 2 of 12
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PAGE 2, HUDSPETH COUNTY HERALD-Dell Valley Review, MARCH 24,2000
Saturday, March 4, 2000
Contamination found in aquifer
By JIM McBRIDE
Globe-News Courts Writer
The Energy Department will expand Pantex water monitoring
programs after low-level solvent contamination was found in the
Ogallala Aquifer, the first time Pantex contamination has surfaced in
the Ogallala, officials said Friday.
The Ogallala is a major water source for Amarillo and the High Plains,
but there is no contamination in Amarillo water wells located about a
mile north-northeast of the Pantex nuclear weapons disassembly
plant, said John Bernier, deputy area manager for DOE’s Amarillo
Area Office.
However, Pantex contractor Mason & Hanger Corp, will provide
drinking water to the families living near Pantex as a precautionary
measure, said Brad Jones, head of the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation’s Amarillo office.
On Friday, Pantex personnel installed water equipment at the house
of Jeri Osborne who lives just north of Pantex’ burning grounds,
where the contamination was located.
‘They were going to test our wells and see what they show,” she
said.
The contamination, a common industrial solvent called
trichlorethylene or TCI, was found in a monitoring well within the
northwest boundary of Pantex. The DOE said Friday it will drill at
least two other monitoring wells to determine if TCE is present
elsewhere.
Solvent contamination was recorded during quarterly samplings in
June, September and November of 1999, but the contamination was
not publicly reported because of an error, state and federal officials
said. In June, TCE levels were recorded above the Environmental
Protection Agency drinking-water standard of 5 parts per billion for
the first time.
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discharging wastes into on-site surface waters.
In recent years, Pantex has drilled monitoring wells on Pantex
property and adjacent land to determine the extent of contamination
in the perched ground-water zone, a water-bearing layer separated
from the Ogallala Aquifer by a layer of silts and clays.
Low-levels of solvents, gasoline components, chromium and high
explosive contaminants have been found in the perched zone.
Ground-water contaminated with RDX, a high explosive used at
Pantex, has been found in at least two wells located off the site.
The plan at Hanford and
elsewhere is to dig up the
barrels, check the contents,
fix or replace barrels - and
depending on the contents,
either rebury them, store them
in above-ground metal
buildings or ship them to New
Mexico.
“The Mason & Hanger Corp, discovered an error in timely reporting of
this date on Wednesday, March 1, 2000, during a review of the draft
Annual Sitewide Environment Report,” the DOE said in a news
release.
September and November levels were recorded at 3.8 parts per
billion and 4.4 parts per billion, the DOE reported.
Bernier said the contamination was not reported earlier because of a
mistake.
“It was overlooked as part of the reporting process,” he said.
Bernier noted that TCE levels have remained below federal drinking
water standards since the June sampling.
“We think it’s important that the other two subsequent testing data
indicates that it is below the drinking water standard,” he said.
In 1985, the EPA classified TCE as a “probably human carcinogen”
based on increased liver tumors in mice.
In 1989, the EPA withdrew the TCE assessment, but it is still
regulated as a carcinogen. The International Agency for Research
on Cancer classifies TCE as a “possible human carcinogen,” with
only “limited” evidence of carcinogenicity in humans. Pantex no
longer uses the solvent it once was used at a former pit located at
the plant burning grounds, according to information released by
Mason & Hanger.
Jones said the state is concerned that sampling results were not
reported earlier, but that TNRCC officials will monitor the situation.
“It is extremely low-level. We’re going to watch it, and Pantex is
going to clean it up,” Jones said.
Don Moniak, a spokesman for Serious Texans Against Nuclear
Dumping, praised Dan Glenn, DOE’s new Amarillo area office
manager, for reporting the test results to nearby residents, but he
questioned the thoroughness of Pantex’ earlier cleanup work.
“It’s time for them to quit denying. All the cleanup was based on the
assumption that the Ogallala was not contaminated and not at risk.
And it is,” he said. “We don’t know whether this is the tip of the
iceberg or an anomaly.”
The plant was named the 29th Superfund site in Texas in 1994 after
being proposed for the program in 1991. Sites listed on the
Superfund are among the most toxic in the nation. Plant officials
now are asking the EPA to remove Pantex from the Superfund
program, citing plant cleanup.
In 1991, when the EPA sought the Superfund designation for
Pantex, the agency cited plant practices including burning
chemicals in unlined pits, burying wastes in unlined landfills and
Pantex and state officials say the perched ground-water
contamination is a concern, but does not threaten the health of
nearby landowners.
March 14, 2000
Hanford to ship radioactive wastes
RICHLAND (AP) —For the first time in nearly six decades of
Cold War nuclear weapons materials production and cleanup, Hanford
nuclear reservation soon could begin shipping some of its radioactive
wastes elsewhere.
In May, Hanford officials expect to begin sending plutonium-laced
wastes - called transuranics to a huge manmade cavern in New
Mexico.
Hanford’s transuranic wastes include contaminated clothes, tools
paint cans, buckets, wires and sliced-up equipment of all sorts. Most
of it has been stored in 55-gallon barrels, and some boxes which
have been buried in trenches.
The job is expected to last three decades. It will start at the rate of
one or two truckloads a month.
“It’s an incredibly complex program for throwing away garbage ” said
Mark French, the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste program
manager.
The term transuranic refers to radioactive elements, such as
plutonium, that have a higher atomic weight than uranium These
elements are more radioactive and take much longer to decay than
low-level radioactive wastes.
So far, French’s program has kept a low profile, but that’s about to
change as Hanford joins other Energy Department sites in shipping
transuranic wastes to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project - or WIPP -
near Carlsbad, N.M.
Hanford is awaiting final approval from New Mexico to begin shipping
its W3St6S.
Hanford now has about 38,000 barrels of transuranic wastes on site
to ship to WIPP and expects eventually to send 80,000 drums as
more transuranic wastes are dug up as cleanup proceeds.
Much of it can be moved by hand if workers wear appropriate
protective gear and follow safety procedures. But some wastes are
so radioactive that the material can be moved only with remote-
control equipment, usually inside of shielded gloveboxes and other
containers. aiiU vmci
Another major problem is that most of the wastes are stored in steel
PearkTngthat COITOde deteriorate over time- Some already be
WIPP is a federal compound
about 30 miles southeast of
Carlsbad in southern New
Mexico. Beneath the surface,
WIPP extends 2,150 feet
deep into a manmade cavern
of numerous chambers in the
middle of a 2.000-foot-thick,
moisture-free layer of Permian
Age rock salt that is roughly
250 million years old.
The salt “does not like voids or
cracks and openings. Its
self-sealing. It creeps in (at a
rate 2 to 3 inches a year) and
closes in naturally to fill in all
the cracks and crevices,” said
Dennis Hurtt, Energy’s WIPP
spokesman.
After about 35 years, the
Energy Department plans to
seal up the entrances to the
chambers, fill in the access
tunnel and seal the shafts
leading to the surfaces,
At Hanford, the transuranic
waste program budget
appears to be remaining
stable at $5.7 million in 2000,
with a projected $5.7 million in
2001, French said.
AIRLINE HUMOR
Occasionally, airline attendants make
an effort to make their announce-
ments a bit more entertaining. Here is
an example that was reported:
After a real crusher of a landing in
Phoenix, the Flight Attendant came
on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen,
please remain in your seats until
Captain Crash and the Crew have
brought the aircraft to a screeching
halt up against the gate. And, once
the tire smoke has cleared and the
warning bells are silenced, we'll open
the door and you can Pick your way
through the wreckage to the
terminal."
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Lynch, Mary Louise. Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 24, 2000, newspaper, March 24, 2000; Dell City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1179009/m1/2/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .