FY 1995 Remedial Investigation Work Plan for Waste Area Grouping 2 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee Page: 14 of 51
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understanding of remedial needs for WAG 2. Specific tasking is based on direction received
from the regulators at the Data Quality Objective (DQO) Workshop completed in June 1994.
Definition of Phase II biota monitoring activities will be based on recommendations
developed from the ecological risk assessment that will be initiated in FY 1995.
1.2 BACKGROUND
ORNL was established in 1943, and over 50 years of operations have produced a legacy
of contaminated inactive facilities, research areas, and waste disposal areas that are potential
candidates for remedial action. Because of the large number of sites and the complex
hydrology and geology at ORNL, the strategy developed in response to regulatory
requirements has been oriented toward WAGS rather than individual sites. WAGs are
generally defined by local geographic watersheds or drainage basins that contain contiguous
and similar remedial action sites. In some cases, there has been hydrologic interaction among
the sites within a WAG, making individual sites hydrologically inseparable.
The ORNL ER Program was established to coordinate the U.S. Department of Energy's
(DOE's) response obligations to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and
other relevant regulations. The program manages remedial efforts to achieve comprehensive
remediation of releases and threatened releases of hazardous substances, hazardous wastes,
and pollutants or contaminants at or from ORNL. The ORNL ER Program follows the
structured CERCLA path of site characterization, site maintenance and surveillance, interim
corrective action, alternatives assessment, technology development, engineering design, and
eventual site closure or remediation.
The WAG 2 RI and Site Investigations (SI) Project, in place through FY 1994, fulfills
requirements of the CERCLA RI/FS process for WAG 2 and, with the associated SI studies,
represents a series of directed investigations addressing the movement of contaminants for
the ORNL WAGS. RCRA requirements are also important considerations in WAG 2, and
coordination of CERCLA and RCRA is addressed more fully in the Phase I RI report (DOE
1993a) and in the RI Work Plan (ORNL 1990).
WAG 2 consists of one operable unit, which includes WOC surface water and
streams/tributaries located downgradient of the ORNL main plant area, WOL, WOCE on the
Clinch River, and the associated sediments and floodplain soils and the subsurface
environment from the approximate 100-year flood elevation to the Clinch River. The WOC
system is the surface drainage for the major ORNL WAGS, and it has been exposed to a
diverse array of contaminants from operations and waste disposal activities in the WOC
watershed. These contaminants can include tritium, fission and nuclear activation products,
transuranics, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), volatile organic compounds, and various
metals (e.g., Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, and Zn). WAG 2 is important as a conduit to the Clinch
River for upgradient areas and as one of two major integrators of the contaminant releases
from ORNL WAGS in the WOC watershed. Water, sediment, soils, and biota in WAG 2 have
been contaminated as a result of past disposal practices at ORNL, and contaminants continue
to migrate from upgradient WAGS.
The strategy developed for the WAG 2 efforts uses information collected in WAG 2 to
support the remediation of individual upgradient sites, while providing an integrated measure77
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Watkins, D. R. & Herbes, S. E. FY 1995 Remedial Investigation Work Plan for Waste Area Grouping 2 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, report, December 1, 1994; Tennessee. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1279955/m1/14/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.