[CPEO-MEF] Pause in pumping at Idaho Labs

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

DOE pauses cleanup at INL for testing

By Michelle Dunlop
Twin Valley Times-News (ID)
March 2, 2005

ARCO -- Scientists believe they have removed enough of a contaminant
from one section of the aquifer at the Idaho National Laboratory to
pause cleanup efforts and monitor water quality.

More than 50 years ago, workers in the Test Area North section of the
INL began pumping the first of what could be thousands of gallons of a
pollutant called trichloroethene into the Snake River Aquifer.
Trichloroethene, or TCE, can cause cancer when ingested. 

In 2001, the Department of Energy began operating a pump and treat
system that has cleaned more than 350 million gallons of water to date.
This week, officials will temporarily turn off the system in order to
observe progress.

"This test will allow DOE cleanup teams to collect the information they
need to find more efficient ways to treat the groundwater at Test Area
North," said Matt Wilkening, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
manager for the cleanup.

The injection well used for dumping TCE into the aquifer was shut down
in 1972. However, the contaminant did not show up on-site at INL until
1988 in wells roughly 500 to 600 feet away from the injection well, said
Joseph Campbell, a spokesperson for the DOE.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.magicvalley.com/news/localstate/index.asp?StoryID=14350
-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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