AWWA SRC57775

AWWA SRC57775 A Source Water Assessment of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
Conference Proceeding by American Water Works Association, 01/19/2003

Sehlke, Gerald; Andersen, Bradley D.

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The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is a government-owned reservation (the Site), in the southeastern portion of Idaho, approximately 40 km (25 mi) west of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The INEEL Site covers approximately 2,300 km2 (890 mi2), approximately the size of Rhode Island. The INEEL operates nine major operational areas and a number of the smaller "miscellaneous" facilities, each of which has its own sources of drinking water and/or production water. There are 12 drinking water systems at the INEEL, each of which is supplied by groundwater pumped from the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer. In 1994, the INEEL voluntarily initiated a wellhead protection program and began delineating and evaluating wellhead protection areas in accordance with the State of Idaho's draft "Idaho Wellhead Protection Plan". Much of this earlier wellhead protection work has been incorporated into the INEEL Source Water Assessment, conducted in 2001-2002. Geographically, the INEEL's Source Water Assessment included the site itself, portions of six watershed (USGS Cataloging Units), three streams and three aquifers that either flow onto or off of the INEEL. Historically, work at the INEEL has included constructing and testing various kinds of nuclear reactors, primarily to demonstrate reactor safety, and other activities such as testing of irradiated fuels, the recovery of uranium from spent fuels, reactor training, and storage of low-level and transuranic (TRU) wastes. Each of the INEEL's 12 drinking water systems were evaluated to determine their potential risk to becoming contaminated from known and potential releases of contaminants from these activities, discharges from on-site wastewater treatment facilities and, at some facilities, potential contaminants from off-site sources. The results of this assessment will be used as the basis for establishing a site-wide Source Water Assessment Program Management Plan. Includes 6 references, tables, figures.