Groundwater monitoring advances with national lab support and AI‑enabled tools; field surveys reaching early milestones

DOE groundwater and environmental staff updated the steering committee on ongoing groundwater investigations and final status survey progress. Liz Moran said the project partnered with national labs to identify data gaps for the Groundwater Compliance Action Plan (GCAP) and that two remaining tasks were expected to be completed during the meeting week, producing data not gathered for 20-plus years.

Field teams are mapping groundwater using boat‑based observation of riverbed discharge, shallow electrical lines in the well field to identify freshwater/brine interactions, and transducers placed in monitoring wells. The team reported the site is divided into ~14,500 10×10‑meter survey units; field crews began mid‑July and have scanned and sampled about 1,200 units (~12% complete). About 10% of collected samples will be sent to a certified off‑site lab for verification.

Liz described three lines of protection for groundwater and habitat: a series of extraction wells to remove contaminated groundwater (extracted water has been used for dust suppression on site and is transported to Crescent Junction), an injection system to establish a freshwater hydraulic barrier to protect backwater fish habitat, and occasional diversion of freshwater to dilute ammonia in sensitive channels. She told the committee the main contaminants of concern are uranium and ammonia and that the primary ecological concern is ammonia’s effect on endangered fish species; human health risk was described in the original NEPA as low.

DOE also said it will bring an independent verification contractor on site to verify sampling and procedures and that verification will assess compliance with cleanup criteria (40 CFR 192) and program processes. The team is developing a GPS‑overlaid database to map survey unit scans and soil samples for tracking and quality control.