Management of groundwater corrective actions at the Savannah River Site

The Savannah River Site, SRS, has experienced groundwater contamination as a result of past operating practices. Clean-up of these groundwaters has the potential to become a very large effort requiring a significant commitment of resources. However, the contaminated groundwaters identified do not present an imminent risk to the offsite population or to onsite workers. In order to ensure a risk-based, cost-effective approach to these actions, a program plan has been developed for the management of contaminated groundwaters at the SRS. This paper will describe the strategy for contaminated groundwater management resulting from the SRS groundwater program plan. Initial corrective actions at SRS have been driven by regulatory requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, RCRA. A major groundwater corrective action has been conducted at one waste site at the SRS since 1985. Other potentially major corrective actions at the SRS have been identified. The contaminants of concern include organic solvents, radionuclides, and heavy metals, and their removal presents significant technical challenges. The strategy proposes to: evaluate the regulatory requirements, the long-term risks of the various contaminated groundwater units, the technical requirements associated with clean-up, and the availability of resources; and prioritize future corrective actions while meeting existing commitments to action