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Office of Environmental Management
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Office of Environmental Management
Groundwater and Soil Cleanup
The Department of Energy (DOE) has one of the largest groundwater and soil contamination problems and subsequent cleanup responsibilities for a single entity in the world, in terms of the sheer volume of affected soil and groundwater, range of geologic settings, and diversity of contaminant types. The DOE Environmental Management (EM) Office of Groundwater and Soil Cleanup is tasked with the characterization and cleanup of contaminated groundwater and soil. To complete this mission, EM has identified several goals:
  1. Be proactive in establishing cost-effective and well defined environmental remediation programs that protect the workers, public, and the environment, and ensure implementation of best science and engineering principles and practices for remediating and optimizing groundwater and soil in coordination with environmental regulators and key stakeholders.
  2. Interact with congressionally mandated organizations whose scientific and technological work should assist the Department in resolving remediation concerns and technical uncertainties at its sites.
  3. Ensure that site remediation programs are based on sound project management principles, are responsive to issues and concerns raised by stakeholders, have visibility in the Department and to outside parties, have adequate funding for innovative research by private and public entities, including targeted research by the Office of Science, and take advantage of technological advances and approaches being made and implemented by our internal and external stakeholders.
  4. Investigate and implement innovative technologies that will accelerate cleanup, minimize uncertainty, and more effectively remediate contaminated groundwater and soil.
  5. Ensure groundwater and soil remediation technology needs and opportunities have adequate, targeted investigation and exploration that provides solutions for eliminating hazards, improving cleanup efficiencies, and minimizing uncertainties.
Ultimately, these goals are aimed at reducing risks to the public and the environment, improving safety performance, and also reducing overall life-cycle remediation costs and schedules. These goals are to be accomplished by many approaches, including those listed below:
  1. Finding and implementing permanent and cost-effective remediation technologies to remove and/or immobilize technesium-99, strontium-90, uranium, metals, and chlorinated organics in groundwater and soil.
  2. Using sophisticated groundwater and fate and transport models throughout the EM complex.
  3. Developing and institutionalizing new technical contract performance measures for remediation activities.
  4. Ensuring that all source terms of contamination are fully identified and all contaminated sites are appropriately characterized.
  5. Controlling the cleanup investments for remediating contaminated groundwater and soil.
  6. Integrating successfully implemented remediation technologies and regulatory approaches across the complex to reduce the risk of duplicative efforts.
  7. Recognizing the impact of the codification of new state/federal environmental regulatory requirements and cleanup standards.
  8. Addressing the impact of binding regulatory decisions and legal challenges.
  9. Developing and adopting scientifically-based interim and final cleanup standards.
  10. Demonstrating that performance-based environmental remediation contracts are being effectively implemented.
  11. Aligning Science’s basic research portfolio with EM’s Remediation Program and technology needs.
  12. Working with state/federal environmental regulators to approve technical impracticability waivers where applicable.

Groundwater Database

The Groundwater Database was developed to provide a centralized location for information relating to groundwater dynamics, contamination, and remedial approaches across DOE complex. The database provides DOE management and other interested parties with an easily accessible "high level" understanding of the type of contamination, magnitude of contamination, and dynamics of groundwater systems at DOE sites. It also identifies remedial approaches, exit strategies, long-term stewardship requirements, regulatory drivers, and any significant problems, issues, concerns, and/or site specific peculiarities.

Sites with similar settings, contamination, or remedial approaches can easily be identified, resulting in the sharing of technologies and lessons learned between sites. The data serves as a resource to respond to internal and external data requests, therefore minimizing impacts to the field. The data assists in prioritizing cleanup operations/decisions. The data set provides the technical input to conduct analyses and evaluations.

The following summarizes sections in the database:
  1. General Information
    Identifies contaminated groundwater at DOE sites by distinct plumes. Distinct plumes are defined as contaminated groundwater that can be delineated independently from other contaminated groundwater and generally results from single or multiple environmental releases within a given area. Commingled plumes that cannot be easily segregated into individual plumes are designated as single plumes.
  2. Contaminants
    Lists plume contaminants and concentration/activity levels.
  3. Source
    States if contaminant sources for the plume are present and if remedies call for source control actions.
  4. Hydrogeology
    Provides depths to plume, groundwater velocity, estimated contaminated area and volume, and flow mechanics.
  5. Remedial Approaches
    Identifies remedial actions completed, confirmed, or proposed, including performance periods.
  6. Groundwater Use
    Identifies if groundwater is potable and if the contaminated aquifer is a sole source aquifer.
  7. Exit Strategies
    States the status and basis of exit strategies.
  8. Long-term Stewardship
    Identifies long-term stewardship requirements.
  9. Environmental Indicator
    States if groundwater migration is under control and if current human exposure is acceptable.
  10. Regulatory
    Identifies regulatory drivers and formal agreements.
  11. Comments
    Includes comments that assist in understanding groundwater characteristics, contamination, and remedial approaches for the plume and site. These comments include issues and concerns, potential complications, specialized site conditions, entries that require additional clarification, and rationale for actions.
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