Hanford Treats More Than 2 Billion Gallons of Groundwater Seven Years in a Row

RICHLAND, Wash. – The Hanford Site is closing in on treating 28 billion total gallons of groundwater to remove contamination since treatment began in the mid-1990s, significantly reducing risk to the Columbia River. That is a volume roughly equal to the amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls in 12 hours.

Operators will treat nearly 2.4 billion gallons of groundwater in fiscal 2021 alone, which ends Sept. 30. This is the seventh consecutive year Hanford has treated more than 2 billion gallons of groundwater to remove contamination caused by decades of producing plutonium for the U.S. nuclear weapons program.

“Protecting the Columbia River was our primary goal when groundwater cleanup began more than 25 years ago, and it continues to drive our treatment efforts today,” said Mike Cline, EM Richland Operations Office (RL) project director for cleanup of soil and groundwater at Hanford.

RL contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) operates six treatment systems to remove radioactive and chemical contaminants from groundwater along the Columbia River and on Hanford’s Central Plateau, located near the center of the site. This is where massive chemical processing facilities separated plutonium from fission products from the 1940s through the 1980s, discharging billions of gallons of contaminated liquids into soil disposal sites.

“The efficiency and reliability of our treatment systems are key components of Hanford’s groundwater program success, but it’s the experience and professionalism of our operators and support teams that allow us to meet our treatment goals year after year,” said Mark Cherry, director of CPCCo soil and groundwater operations.

Hanford’s treatment systems have removed about 600 tons of contaminants over the life of the groundwater cleanup mission, including most of the chromium contamination along the Columbia River, as well as other contaminants of concern, such as carbon tetrachloride, uranium, and technetium-99 on the Central Plateau.