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A Summary of ATSDR's evaluation of potential exposures to contaminated off-site groundwater from the Oak Ridge Reservation
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Apr 26, 2012
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Description:In 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, the federal government established the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in Anderson and Roane Counties in eastern Tennessee. The ORR’s mis- sion was to research, develop, and produce special radioactive materials for nuclear weapons. Four facilities were built at that time: the X-10 site (formerly known as the Clinton Laboratories and now part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL]); the Y-12 plant (now known as the Y-12 National Security Complex); the K-25 site (formerly known as the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and now referred to as the East Tennessee Technology Park [ETTP]); and the S-50 site (now part of the ETTP). The Y-12 plant, K-25 site, and S-50 site were created to enrich uranium. The X-10 site was created to demonstrate process- es for producing and separating plutonium. Since the end of World War II, the role of the ORR has broadened to include a variety of nuclear research and production projects essential to national security.
The ORR is located in the city of Oak Ridge, approximately 15 miles west of Knoxville. The Clinch River forms the ORR’s southern and western borders. The ORR currently comprises some 35,000 acres. The three major U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) installations—the ETTP, ORNL, and the Y-12 National Security Complex—occupy about 30 percent of that acreage. In 1980, the remaining 70 percent was established as a National Environmental Research Park, to provide protected land for environmental science research and education and to demonstrate that energy technology development and a quality environment can coexist.
In 1989, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added the ORR to the National Priorities List because, over the years, the ORR operations have generated a variety of radioactive and nonradioactive waste. A portion of this waste remains in old waste sites, which occupy 5 to 10 percent of the ORR, and some pollutants have been released into the environment.
ATSDR’s public health assessment concluded that no human exposures to off-site contaminated groundwater have occurred in the past, no exposures are currently occurring, and no exposures are likely to occur in the future. The contaminated groundwater originating from the Y-12 complex is the only confirmed off-site groundwater plume. Because nearly all ground-water beneath the ORR ends up as surface water before leaving the site, and because no private wells pump groundwater in this area, ATSDR concluded no completed exposure pathways are available for the ingestion of, or direct contact with, off-site groundwater. Residential well monitoring has established that private wells have been unaffected by contamination from ORR activities.
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