The scores are in, and the Hanford Site received a perfect 10 — that is, 10 consecutive years of treating more than 2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater, an achievement that highlights continuous, consistent cleanup progress.
Office of Environmental Management
October 15, 2024
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The Hanford Site’s largest groundwater treatment plant was recently expanded to increase flow rate from 2,500 to 3,400 gallons per minute, allowing the facility to treat an additional 475 million gallons of groundwater each year.
RICHLAND, Wash. — The scores are in, and the Hanford Site received a perfect 10 — that is, 10 consecutive years of treating more than 2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater, an achievement that highlights continuous, consistent cleanup progress.
For fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, Hanford contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) treated 2.3 billion gallons. Hanford has treated nearly 35 billion gallons since the site’s award-winning groundwater remediation program began in the 1990s.
“Hanford’s groundwater program has been a model of consistency and one of the biggest success stories in our ongoing cleanup mission,” said Naomi Jaschke, Hanford Field Office project director for the Soil and Groundwater Division. “But the job is not finished. We are continually seeking more efficient and cost-effective solutions to improve our systems, with protection of the nearby Columbia River our ultimate goal.”
The Hanford Site has treated more than 2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater for 10 consecutive years.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, this summer the Hanford Site completed a significant expansion of the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility, the largest of its six groundwater treatment plants.
The facility, which began operations in 2012, increased its flow rate to more than 3,400 gallons of groundwater per minute, a 35% increase over its original design capacity of 2,500 gallons per minute. The expanded capacity will allow the facility to treat an additional 475 million gallons annually.
The ambitious expansion project required the installation of 54,000 feet — more than 10 miles — of specialized plastic piping to connect the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility to a dozen new groundwater extraction wells. The goal of the expansion was to optimize the extraction well network by decreasing the plume size and concentration. This more effectively increases the removal of radioactive and chemical contamination under the site’s Central Plateau.
Workers with Hanford Site contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company pull groundwater samples from a well at the site. In many areas of the site’s Central Plateau, groundwater is more than 300 feet below the surface.
The Hanford Site’s groundwater treatment expansion project required the drilling and installation of a dozen new extraction wells, which were connected to the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility, one of Hanford’s six operating groundwater treatment plants.
The extraction wells pump contaminated water from the aquifer, which is often more than 300 feet below the surface. The water moves through the system, which removes contaminants and then injects the treated water back into the ground. This helps push the yet untreated groundwater toward the extraction wells, continuing the cycle.
“This is the largest expansion of our treatment network to date,” said Mark Cherry, CPCCo Soil & Groundwater Operations director. “The pump-and-treat systems have already removed nearly 700 tons of contaminants from the aquifer over the life of Hanford’s groundwater treatment program, and completion of this critical project allows us to more efficiently increase that number as we continue to reduce risk to the river.”
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