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STREAMLINED ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION CHARACTERIZATION USING REMOTE SENSING
TECHNIQUES: CASE STUDIES FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, OAK RIDGE OPERATIONS
David M. Carden, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Oak Ridge Operations, USA
Charles L. Nalezny, U.S. DOE-Headquarters, Office of Environmental Management, USA
John Smyre, Lockheed Martin Energy Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Thomas K. Evers, Lockheed Martin Energy Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Amy L. King, Lockheed Martin Energy Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Commission VII, Working Group 7
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, Environment, Monitoring, Imagery, Infrared, Multispectral, Thermal
ABSTRACT
The paper provides an overview of the DOE Oak Ridge Operations Remote Sensing Program and discusses how data from this Program
have assisted the Environmental Restoration Program in streamlining site characterization activities. Descriptions have been provided
for three case studies in which remote sensing imagery has provided a more focused understanding of site problems with a resultant
reduction in the need for costly and time consuming ground-based sampling approaches.
1. BACKGROUND
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Operations
Environmental Restoration Program began in 1984. At this time,
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective
measures and closures regulations were the principal drivers for
mitigating contaminant releases from disposal areas that had
received hazardous and mixed wastes. Since that period, the
Environmental Restoration Program has dramatically expanded in
scope and regulatory emphasis scope to include remediation of
numerous Oak Ridge waste sites and Decontamination and
Decommissioning (D&D) of hundreds of old DOE buildings and
structures.
The cost of collecting and analyzing environmental data to address
environmental remediation and D&D problems is a major portion
of the total DOE Oak Ridge annual budget. Until 1992, the
typical method for site characterization was the use of land-based
sampling techniques involving manual sample collection and
analytical lab analysis. Such characterization methods were slow
and costly, e.g., for one 60-acre waste area at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL), a four-year and $45 million remedial
investigation was conducted. In the past three years, however, the
methods for remedial investigation have seen a substantial shift to
the use of screening-based characterization including remote
sensing. The reasons for this shift were: (1) DOE and their
regulators saw that too much time was being spent on studying site
contamination problems while there was little progress in actual
cleanup, (2) there has been a dramatic decrease in the funding
available for conducting environmental restoration activities, and
(3) regulators and DOE became more willing to accept the higher
level of uncertainty in screening level data for making many
preliminary remedial decisions.
As a result of the increased emphasis on screening level
characterization methods, the DOE Oak Ridge Operations Remote
Sensing Program was formally established in 1992. The Program
was implemented to provide a technical support organization for
planning and implementation of remote sensing data collection,
using both conventional and classified methods. The Program is
funded by the DOE-Headquarters (HQ) Office of Environmental
Management and is directed by the DOE Oak Ridge Operations
Office. Implementation support is provided by Lockheed Martin
91
Energy Systems. The following case studies describe how the
support of the Oak Ridge Remote Sensing Program has improved
the efficiency for three Oak Ridge environmental restoration
projects. Although many other examples exist, these three cases
represent a good cross-section of the type of support offered.
2. CASE STUDY: BURIED TRENCHES AT ORNL
2.1 Introduction
Solid Waste Storage Area (SWSA) 4 is located in the DOE ORNL
complex and covers approximately 23 acres. In the 1950s,
SWSA-4 received a variety of low- and higher-activity radioactive
wastes, including transuranic wastes, all of which were buried in
unlined trenches or augur holes. During the period 1955 through
1963, SWSA-4 was designated as the Southern Regional Burial
Ground for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Approximately
half of the waste received at SWSA-4 in the 1950s originated at
ORNL, while the remainder of waste came from a number of
off-site locations.
The legacy of waste disposal practices at SWSA-4 resulted in a
major environmental remediation concern due to shallow
groundwater contamination from radionuclides with subsequent
release to site surface streams through a series of seeps. Water
sampling data in White Oak Creek downstream of SWSA-4,
indicated that these releases contributed approximately 35-percent
of the total off-site contribution of radioactive strontium and 20-
percent of the tritium contribution. Reducing the flow of these
contaminants would require precisely locating the trenches that
contributed the highest percentage of contaminants and
undertaking remedial actions to contain and isolate the buried
waste from surface and subsurface water. Unfortunately, most of
the operational records that provided locational information were
destroyed in a fire and only sketchy and unverified information
remained. This left the remediation program at an impasse with
limited ability to evaluate feasible remedial action and pollution
reduction options.
Realizing this information gap problem, the Oak Ridge Operations
Remote Sensing Program offered assistance in using remotely-
sensed multispectral and thermal imagery to accurately map the
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B7. Vienna 1996
