Papers by Bruce Bjornstad
The primary objective of this study was to refine the conceptual groundwater flow model for the 2... more The primary objective of this study was to refine the conceptual groundwater flow model for the 200-East Area and vicinity. This area holds the largest inventory of radionuclide and chemical wastes on the Hanford Site. This inventory is located in underground storage tanks, the vadose zone, and the saturated zone. Within the saturated zone groundwater contaminant plumes, originating from past practice activities at facilities within this area are migrating toward the Columbia River where they will be accessible to the public. This study supports the Hanford Groundwater/Vadose Integration Project objectives, to better understand the risk of groundwater contamination, and potential risk to the public via groundwater flow paths.
Geological Society of America eBooks, Sep 24, 2021
New findings about old puzzles occasion rethinking of the Grand Coulee, greatest of the scabland ... more New findings about old puzzles occasion rethinking of the Grand Coulee, greatest of the scabland channels. Those puzzles begin with antecedents of current upper Grand Coulee. By a recent interpretation, the upper coulee exploited the former highlevel valley of a preflood trunk stream that had drained to the southwest beside and across Coulee anticline or monocline. In any case, a constriction and sharp bend in nearby Columbia valley steered Missoula floods this direction. Completion of upper Grand Coulee by megaflood erosion captured flood drainage that would otherwise have continued to enlarge Moses Coulee. Upstream in the Sanpoil valley, deposits and shorelines of last-glacial Lake Columbia varied with the lake's Grand Coulee outlet while also recording scores of Missoula floods. The Sanpoil evidence implies that upper Grand Coulee had approached its
This report was revised in September 2008 to remove acid-extractable sodium data from Tables 4.7 ... more This report was revised in September 2008 to remove acid-extractable sodium data from Tables 4.7 and 4.25. The sodium data was removed due to potential contamination introduced during the acid extraction process. The rest of the text remains unchanged from the original report issued in September 2006. The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is to define risks from past and future single-shell tank farm activities at the Hanford Site. To meet this goal, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. tasked scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to perform detailed analyses on vadose zone sediments from within Waste Management Area (WMA) C. This report is the first of two reports written to present the results of these analyses. Specifically, this report contains all the geologic, geochemical, and selected physiochemical characterization data collected on vadose zone sediment recovered from borehole C4297, installed adjacent to tank C-105, and from borehole 299-E27-22, installed directly north of the C Tank Farm. This report also presents the interpretation of data in the context of sediment types, the vertical extent of contamination, the migration potential of the contaminants, and the likely source of the contamination in the vadose zone below the C Tank Farm. The information presented in this report supports the WMA A-AX, C, and U field investigation report in preparation by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. Sediments from borehole 299-E27-22 were characterized for their potential to be used as background (i.e., uncontaminated) sediments against which to compare contaminated sediments during the C Tank Farm characterization effort. Upon analysis of sediment samples from borehole 299-E27-22, elevated concentrations of chloride, nitrate, sulfate, phosphate, magnesium, calcium, strontium, and sodium were encountered at various depths within the borehole. Although no known spills have been recorded at the location where borehole 299-E27-22 was emplaced, the data strongly suggest the sediment has been contacted by a non-radiological waste stream. While the data from borehole 299-E27-22 are presented within this report, it is not recommended that the data be used holistically as background or baseline values for uncontaminated sediment. Instead, data from a companion report (Lindenmeier et al. 2002), which was an investigation of samples from borehole 299-E33-338, should be used for baseline comparisons. We would especially like to thank Kent D. Reynolds (Duratek Federal Services, Inc.) for his efforts in selecting depths to sample and executing the field work that obtained the sample. ix Acronyms and Abbreviations amsl above mean sea level ASA American Society of Agronomy ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials bgs below ground surface CCU Cold Creek unit CCU/R Cold Creek unit and/or Ringold CCUl Cold Creek unit, lower subunit; also referred to as Cold Creek caliche subunit CCUu Cold Creek unit, upper subunit DOE U.S. Department of Energy EC electrical conductivity EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency GEA gamma energy analysis H1 Hanford formation-H1 unit H2 Hanford formation-H2 unit H3 Hanford formation-H3 unit HCl hydrochloric acid HPGe high-purity germanium IC ion chromatography or ion chromatograph ICP inductively coupled plasma (also called inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy ICP-MS inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer ICP-OES inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy KCl potassium chloride K d distribution coefficient, or sorption partition coefficient, in units of mL/g KUT potassium, uranium, and thorium MC moisture content NDIR non-dispersive infrared
OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information), Jan 5, 1995
Two chronosequence of unsaturated buried Ioess sediments ranging in age from <10,000 years to >1 ... more Two chronosequence of unsaturated buried Ioess sediments ranging in age from <10,000 years to >1 million yews were investigate torwonstmct patterns ofticrobial ecological succession that have occun-ed since sediment burial. The relative importance of microbial transport and survival to succession were inferred from sediment ages, porewater ages, patterns of abundance (measured by direct counts, counts of culturable cells, and total phospholipid fatty acids), activities (measured by radiotracer and enzyme assays), and community composition (measured by phospholipid fatty acid patterns and Biolog substrate usage). Samples were collected by coring at two sites 40 km apart in the Palouse region of eastern Washington State near the towns of Washtucna and Winona. The Washtucna site was flooded multiple times during the Pleistocene by glacial outburst floods; the elevation of the Winona site is above flood stage. Sediments at the Washtucna site were collected from near surface to 14.9 m depth, where the sediment age was-250 ka and the porewater age was 3700 years; sample intervals at the Winona site ranged from near surface to 38 m (sediment age:-1 Ma; porewater age: 1200 years). Microbial abundance and activities declined with depth at both sites; however, even the deepest, oldest sediments showed evidence of viable microorganisms. Sediments of equivalent age had equal quantities of microorganisms, but differing community types. Differences in community make-up between the two sites can be attributed to differences in groundwater recharge and paleoflooding. Estimates of the ages of the microbial communities can be constrained by porewater and sediment ages. In the shallower sediments (<9 m at Washtucna, <12 mat Winona), the microbial communities are likely similar in age to the groundwater; thus, microbial succession has been influenced by recent transport of microorganisms from the surface. In the deeper sediments, the populations may be considerably older than the porewater ages, since microbial transport is severely restricted in unsaturated sediments. This is particularly true at the Winona site, which was never flooded.
GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA - 2017, 2017
Locke Island is located in the Columbia River in south-central Washington. The US Department of E... more Locke Island is located in the Columbia River in south-central Washington. The US Department of Energy (DOE) owns Locke Island as part of its Hanford Site. In the 1960s and 1970s, as a result of intensive irrigation developments on the inland shoreline to the east of the island, the White Bluffs, which form the eastern boundary of the Columbia River channel in this area, began to show geological failures as excess irrigation water seeped out along the bluffs. One of the largest such failures, known as the Locke Island Landslide, is located just east of Locke Island. By the early 1980s, this landslide mass had moved westward into the river channel toward the island and was diverting the current at the island`s eastern perimeter. Erosion of the bank in the center of the island accelerated, threatening the cultural resources. By the early 1990s, the erosion had exposed cultural features and artifacts along the bank, leading to the beginning of intermittent monitoring of the cutbank. In 1994, DOE initiated more scheduled, systematic monitoring of island erosion to better understand the physical processes involved as well as mitigate ongoing loss of the archaeological record.
Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), 1985
Sediments overlying Miocene basalt record aggradation, degradation, and relative tectonic movemen... more Sediments overlying Miocene basalt record aggradation, degradation, and relative tectonic movements within the central Cold Creek syncline, a basin with a long history of subsidence. Seven lithofacies were found to correlate among 40 boreholes over an area of approx. 80 km/sup 2/; five belong to the Neogene fluvial-lacustrine Ringold Formation: (1) a quartzitic, conglomeratic sand overlain by (2) fine-grained fluvial facies capped by a well-developed paleosol, collectively referred to as the basal Ringold. Next, laminated mud (3) accumulated slowly in a low-energy environment. Quartzitic, braided stream gravels (4) of the middle Ringold were deposited next when the main channel of the ancestral Columbia reoccupied the study area. A sudden, regional transition from conglomerate to (5) fine-grained facies is interpreted to reflect upstream changes in either climate or tectonic activity. Other correlative units include: (6) locally derived Pleistocene(.) detritus that filled a paleochannel near the synclinal axis; pedogenic calcrete developed, coevally, adjacent to this channel and (7) late-Pleistocene cataclysmic flood deposits that blanket the study area. Subsurface lithostratigraphic correlations generally corroborate a model for long-term, low-average rate of tectonic deformation. Structure contour and isopach maps suggest syndepositional folding resulted in nearly continuous aggradation and preservation of sediments during Ringold time. Subsidencemore » may have accelerated temporarily during middle Ringold time, as indicated by the thick conglomeratic sequence which is significantly warped at the base but not on top.« less
Worldwide, loess-paleosol sequences are archives of terrestrial Quaternary paleoenvironment data.... more Worldwide, loess-paleosol sequences are archives of terrestrial Quaternary paleoenvironment data. The Rulo site is a newly described site in the Palouse loess of southeastern Washington State, USA. The site reveals a 19 m thick deposit of loess and flood sediment, preserving a total of 30 m of reconstructed stratigraphic section. Five unconformity-bound sequences of sediment are exposed at the site, the lowest two of which have yielded fossil remains, including the first reported occurrence of flat-headed peccary (Platygonus compressus) in northwestern North America. The unconformities, two diamicts bearing extrabasinal clasts, and a number of clastic dikes provide evidence for pre-Wisconsin glacial outburst floods in southeastern Washington. More than a dozen paleosols are preserved at the site. These soils are relatively unweathered and therefore primarily record periods of slow sedimentation accumulation in the Palouse, rather than changes in weathering rates. A paleosol near the base of the sequence is unusually weathered for Palouse paleosols, and records a period of increased weathering during the Middle Pleistocene. All units above the sand are normal paleomagnetic polarity; additional age control is provided by a tephra in the upper third of the sequence that matches a ca. 220 ka tephra from Newberry Volcano, and by stratigraphic correlation of later units to other sites in the Palouse. The Rulo site adds to the record of Irvingtonian fauna in North America, and supports accumulating evidence for pre-Late Wisconsin glacial outburst floods in the Pacific Northwest.
Springer eBooks, 2021
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA - 2017, 2017
Abstracts with programs, 2016
Many National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance documents have been prepared and are bei... more Many National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance documents have been prepared and are being prepared by Site contractors for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Examination of these documents reveals inconsistencies in the data presented and the method of presentation. Thus, it seemed necessary to prepare a consistent description of the Hanford Site environment and to describe applicable federal and state laws and regulations to assist in the preparation of environmental impact statements (EISs) and other Site-related NEPA documentation. The two chapters in this document (Chapters 4 and 6) are numbered this way to correspond to the chapters where such information is presented in EISs and other Site-related NEPA documentation. Chapter 4.0 describes the Hanford Site environment. Chapter 6.0 is essentially a definitive NEPA Chapter 6.0, which describes applicable federal and state laws and regulations. People preparing environmental assessments and EISs should also be cognizant of the document entitled Recommendations for the Preparation of Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements published by the DOE Office of NEPA Oversight in May 1993 (DOE 1993). In this document, a complete description of the environment is presented in Chapter 4.0 without extensive tabular data. For these data, sources are provided. Most subjects are divided into a general description of the characteristics of the Hanford Site, followed by site-specific information, where available, of the 100,200,300, and other areas. This division will allow a person requiring information to go immediately to those sections of particular interest. However, specific information on each of these separate areas is not always complete or available. In this case, the general Hanford Site description should be used. To enhance the usability of the document, a copy is available via FTP upon request to Duane A. Neitzel at (509) 376-0602. The document is also available electronically at http://www.pnl.gov/ which is the homepage of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Following are the personnel responsible for the various sections of this document and who should be contacted with questions:
Vadose Zone Journal, Nov 1, 2005
more than 4 million liters of hazardous and radioactive waste in the vadose zone. Relatively mobi... more more than 4 million liters of hazardous and radioactive waste in the vadose zone. Relatively mobile radionu-Accelerated migration of contaminants in the vadose zone has clides such as 99 Tc, 129 I, U, and 3 H have traveled further been observed beneath tank farms at the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Reservation, Richland, WA. This paper focuses on quantify-than predicted by current models and have been deing hydrologic processes that control the fate and transport of contami-tected in the groundwater, which eventually flows to nants in the unsaturated sediments beneath the Hanford tank farms. the Columbia River (Dirkes and Hanf, 1997; Hartman The experimental approach involved the use of field relevant, longand Dresel, 1997). This suggests the mechanisms of such term unsaturated nonreactive transport experiments in undisturbed accelerated contaminant migration remain unclear. It is sediments from the Hanford Formation. Undisturbed sediment cores thought that vertical preferential flow may occur along were collected from a laminated fine-grained sand unit within the clastic dikes or uncased well boreholes. Finger flow that Hanford Formation in both the vertical direction (flow cross bedding) results from unstable wetting fronts may also increase and the horizontal direction (flow bedding parallel). Laboratory-scale the rate of vertical transport in stratified media (Ritsema saturated and unsaturated flow experiments were conducted using
The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is t... more The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is to define risks from past and future single-shell tank farm activities at Hanford. To meet this goal, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. tasked scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to perform detailed analyses on vadose zone sediments from within Waste Management Area (WMA) T-TX-TY. This report is the second of two reports written to present the results of these analyses. Specifically, this report contains all the geologic, geochemical, and selected physical characterization data collected on vadose zone sediment recovered from boreholes C4104 and C4105 in the T Tank Farm, and from borehole 299-W-11-39 installed northeast of the T Tank Farm. Finally, the measurements on sediments from borehole C4104 are compared with a nearby borehole drilled in 1993, 299-W10-196, through the tank T-106 leak plume. Sediments from borehole 299-W-11-39 were considered to be background uncontaminated sediments against which to compare contaminated sediments for the T tank farm characterization effort. However, during characterization of the sediments from 299-W11-39, numerous indications were found that suggest some near-surface contamination may have occurred in the past such that the water extract information for sediments from 299-W11-39 may not represent natural background conditions. Therefore, most of the comparisons of the contaminated T tank farm boreholes to natural background conditions used the sediment characterization information from background borehole 299-W10-27, just northeast of the TX Tank Farm. This report also presents our interpretation of the data in the context of sediment types, the vertical extent of contamination, the migration potential of the contaminants, and the likely source of the contamination in the vadose zone and groundwater below the T Tank Farm. The information presented in this report supports the T-TX-TY Waste Management Area field investigation report (a) in preparation by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. Sediment samples from the boreholes were analyzed and characterized in the laboratory for the following parameters: moisture content, gamma-emitting radionuclides, one-to-one water extracts (which provide soil pH, electrical conductivity, cation, trace metal, radionuclide and anion data), total carbon and inorganic carbon content, and 8 M nitric acid extracts (which provide a measure of the total leachable sediment content of contaminants). Key radiocontaminants, technetium-99, actinides, fission products (including strontium-90, europium radioisotopes, ruthenium and molybdenum), cobalt-60, and uranium, along with other trace metals were determined in acid and water extracts using several techniques, including inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, gamma energy analysis, liquid scintillation, and alpha spectrometry. Overall, our analyses showed that common ion exchange is a key mechanism that influences the distribution of contaminants within that portion of the vadose zone affected by tank liquor. Like the vadose zone sediments at the SX and BX Tank Farms, we did observe elevated pH values [from 8.6 to almost 10] in samples between the depths of 47 to 92.6 ft bgs from borehole C4104 at WMA T. No signs of elevated pH were found in the sediments from borehole C4105. (a) Field Investigation Report for Waste Management Areas T and TX-TY, by FJ Anderson (CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., Richland, Washington), under preparation. UV ultraviolet WMA Waste Management Area XRD X-ray diffraction (a technique to characterize crystalline materials) XRF X-ray fluorescence (a technique to measure total element mass in solids) xi
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Papers by Bruce Bjornstad