Risk and Decision Sciences Group - Environmental Technology Directorate
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Hanford Site Groundwater Monitoring Schedule

Groundwater is monitored in hundreds of wells at the Hanford Site to fulfill a variety of requirements. Separate monitoring plans are prepared for various purposes, but sampling is coordinated and data are shared among users. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) manages these activities through the Hanford Groundwater Performance Assessment Project (groundwater project), which is the responsibility of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The groundwater project integrates monitoring for various objectives into a single sampling schedule to avoid redundancy of effort and to improve efficiency of sample collection.

The FY 2006 monitoring schedule is available below. The tables of wells and constituents in the plan were constructed by querying the groundwater project's schedule database. The baseline schedule shows what was originally scheduled for fiscal year 2006 (October 2005 through September 2006). The other tables were created as snapshots to show changes that were made to the baseline schedule, such as added sampling events (e.g., to confirm questionable results or critical mean exceedance) or cancelled sampling events (e.g., removing dry wells or reflecting plan revisions).

The tables show the number of times that a well is scheduled to be sampled in fiscal year 2006 for each constituent (or constituent group such as anions). Many wells are listed multiple times in this table because they are co-sampled for the objectives of more than one project or waste management area. Sampling is coordinated to avoid duplication. The table does not include quality control samples, samples collected during drilling of new wells, or shoreline seeps. Wells scheduled biennially or triennially are only listed in the table if they are scheduled for FY 2006. The table does not include sampling conducted outside the groundwater project, such as operational sampling associated with pump-and-treat systems, monitoring of the 200 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility, or State-Approved Land Disposal Site.

In addition to the constituents listed in the tables, samples are analyzed in the field for temperature, turbidity, pH, and specific conductance. Water levels are measured before each well is sampled. Refer to the FY2005 Integrated Monitoring Plan (pdf, 1.8MB) for information on monitoring objectives and well location maps. The following information on keys used in the tables may be of help to users:

Site Name

Well or aquifer tube

Program

Project

Constituent Abbreviations