The Savannah River Site in South Carolina garnered a 99.9 percent compliance rate last year for the amount of pollutants it discharges into water on and off site, according to the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy facility. The compliance rate is based on the regularity with which SRS remained in line with state and federal rules when it was tested for pollutants.
The 2016 SRS Environmental Report issued by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) details the site’s releases into the environment, and its impact on the local community and ecosystem. SRNS concluded the Savannah River Site is safely monitoring its water, soil, and air emissions into the community and that releases pose minimal risk to the environment.
The DOE facility emits potentially harmful materials into the environment, such as tritium and uranium. These emissions are a result of the various SRS missions, including radioactive waste treatment, tritium production, and nuclear materials processing. The site conducts routine tests to stay in compliance with state and federal safety guidelines.
According to the report, water and air pathways in 2016 had a combined pollutant dosage of 0.19 millirem (mrem), the unit used to measure radiation. About 0.15 mrem was released into water, and 0.038 were released into the air. The total dosage fell far below the DOE public dose limit of 100 mrem per year.
Water samples are collecting on-site to ensure SRS is complying with permits issued under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). SRS has two of the permits, which allows the site to discharge into 28 industrial wastewater outfalls and 35 industrial stormwater outfalls. The site, located near Aiken, S.C., and Augusta, Ga., performed 3,275 wastewater sample analyses in 2016. Samplings are taken on and off site, up to a distance of 100 miles. Of those, only two exceeded permit limits.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) issued one permit violation because SRS exceeded the amount of solid material it can have in a water outfall filter. “SRS collected the monthly sample while water was being removed while closing the D-Area ash basins. The dewatering activity resulted in additional solids being suspended in the outfall waters,” SRNS said in its report. “This was an isolated exceedance, and subsequent sampling yielded analyses below the monthly average total suspended solids permit limit.”
The state agency does not review these annual site reports, but does issue a similar report and discusses results with SRS.
The second issue occurred when the water flow at another outfall exceeded the daily maximum flow allotment. The outfall held 7 inches of rainfall, which increased water flow prior to sampling. SRS only received a state notice of violation for the solid waste issue.
In addition to water pollution, SRS also monitors the number of pollutants released into the air. Samplings are conducted on site, on the outside perimeter, and throughout the surrounding communities in South Carolina and Georgia. In 2016, tritium gas accounted for 84 percent of the radioactivity SRS released into the air. Though tritium accounted for a large portion of the emissions, “Tritium releases are maintained as low as reasonably achievable to be compliant with DOE,” officials wrote in the report. “Additionally, the offsite dose from all airborne releases remained well below the DOE and EPA annual air pathway dose standard.”
The Savannah River Site also conducts soil surveillance from five on-site locations, 10 perimeter locations, and three off-site locations. Uranium isotopes are routinely found in the soil, SRNS wrote, but the SRS levels “are within the typical range for soils and are at or below the average concentration in U.S. soils.”
