In many places, one of the earth's most important self-defense mechanisms - one that protects the water we drink - has been compromised. This region of soil and rock, called the vadose zone, is the layer of soil between the surface of the ground and the aquifer that filters and chemically changes contaminants trickling down through the earth.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is leading the development of a comprehensive vadose zone program that will foster technically grounded decision-making throughout the DOE complex in the characterization, assessment and remediation of contaminated vadose zone sites.
The INEEL is taking the first ground-breaking step to chart an integrated program for this poorly understood natural buffer by creating a roadmap that will guide the national agenda for funding vadose zone science and technology development. The INEEL sponsored the first meeting of an external advisory group in Idaho Falls, Idaho to plan activities for the national roadmapping exercise. Further meetings are planned throughout the summer and into the fall of 1999.
"This is an exciting opportunity for discovery," said project manager Tom Stoops. "The roadmapping process will help us plan long term for the vision of today's top scientists. Expertise from DOE sites, contractors, industry, other governmental agencies and universities will be utilized to leverage knowledge from other scientific disciplines as it applies to the vadose zone. This will cut costs and enhance the timely delivery of needed products to the end users."
In one of the world's largest environmental management programs, the DOE is responsible for cleaning up the radioactive, chemical and other hazardous substances left after 50 years of U.S. nuclear weapons production. Activities that once gave the nation a sense of security during World War II and the Cold War have left behind a legacy of problems and unease. The goal of the Vadose Zone Program is sound environmental stewardship through understanding that is based on defensible science. The program will include five distinctly different areas: the roadmapping effort, targeted fundamental research, vadose zone monitoring technology development, land-use planning and developing a management infrastructure.
"We are not just looking for what we need today or tomorrow - we are creating overarching guidance that will benefit the nation into the foreseeable future," said Clayton Nichols, chief scientist at the DOE's Idaho Operations Office who is leading the roadmapping effort. "This is both an opportunity and a test for the INEEL as a national laboratory."
Technically grounded decision-making for the vadose zone will require a full scientific understanding of the complex range of factors at work in this natural contaminant filter. Current models used to guide vadose zone management have come from other research disciplines and were modified for use in the vadose zone. This approach has proved inadequate in preventing groundwater contamination. This fragmented body of knowledge must be integrated, and Nichols plans to develop a multidisciplinary team to do it.
"We are seeking the broadest possible range of expertise to charter DOE's course in this complex-wide vadose zone roadmapping effort. In order for this effort to be a success, we must be able to pick up expertise wherever it exists, with no regard for pecking order," said Nichols. He plans to involve personnel from other national laboratories, universities, the U.S. Geological Survey, industry and natural resource exploration companies.
The INEEL has been involved in subsurface science and vadose zone investigations since 1948, and is already recognized as a leader in vadose zone research within the DOE complex of national laboratories. This recognition is due, in part, to the laboratory's enduring role as an applied science and engineering facility that solves problems and its experience gained from field scale infiltration studies on the vadose zone. INEEL researchers were also nationally recognized in 1997 with a prestigious R&D 100 Award for the Advanced Tensiometer, an innovative instrument that measures soil tension at depths not previously possible.
Experts from the INEEL have provided assistance to help plan remediation activities at the DOE Hanford Site in Richland, WA. Hanford is one of the most difficult technical, regulatory and public policy challenges facing the nation. Pollutants at the site are moving through the vadose zone much faster than predicted. A quick search on the Internet of recent media coverage will provide an afternoon of reading that quickly communicates the complexity of the vadose zone. Preservation of the Columbia River resource is a top priority of continuing cleanup planning, and the vadose zone has been identified as a critical contamination path.
Resource preservation is also a primary concern at the INEEL, which sits atop the Snake River Plain Aquifer, a 10,000-square-mile expanse of fractured rock filled with the water that supports southern Idaho. The area between the aquifer and the surface, the vadose zone, works like a giant sponge, soaking in water and contaminants. But there are many more unknowns within the vadose zone than in a kitchen sponge. Different types of soils and the permeability of rock layers affect the retention of rainfall, the solubility of chemical contaminants and the activity levels of resident microbes. Contamination from municipal and hazardous waste landfills, suburban septic systems, mining and petroleum production and agriculture are all filtering through the vadose zone.
Researchers have known for years that soil can work as a natural filter for contaminants, but they still don't fully understand how and to what extent. By the time contaminants can be measured in the groundwater, the contamination has been moving through the ground for some time. The dearth of knowledge and understanding about the vadose zone is reflected in current environmental standards. The majority of EPA regulations focus on cleaning up groundwater, not preventing contamination through vadose zone management and remediation. In the arid western United States, the vadose zone extends hundreds of feet deep. Prevention is an important piece of the puzzle to be explored by the INEEL Vadose Zone Program.
"We're in no man's land," said meeting attendee Loren Everett of the University of California Vadose Zone Research Laboratory, Santa Barbara. "There has been a huge void in vadose zone science until now."
The INEEL Vadose Zone Program Office will solicit guidance from an independent Science Advisory Board, representatives from the Water Board, the Citizens Advisory Board and the DOE Environmental Management Program.
The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Company. The Laboratory is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer. Visit our web site at http://www.inel.gov .
Technical Contacts:
Clayton Nichols, DOE Idaho Operations Office, chief scientist, 208-526-1323,
nicholcr@inel.gov
Brooks Weingartner, DOE-ID project manager for roadmapping
effort, 208-526-1366, weingacb@inel.gov
Thomas Stoops, LMITCO project manager for roadmapping effort, 208-526-4262, hms@inel.gov
Susan Prestwich, DOE-ID science advisor, 208-526-5965, prestwsm@inel.gov
Paul Wichlacz, LMITCO science advisor, 208-526-1292, plw@inel.gov
Media contact:
Deborah Hill, 208-526-4723, dahill@inel.gov
Teri Ehresman, 208-526-7785, ehr@inel.gov
For more information about INEEL vadose zone research projects, access the following news releases:
INEEL Researchers Plant Experimental Monitors Under Savannah River Site's
Hazardous Waste -
http://www.inel.gov/cgi-bin/newsdesk.cgi?a=63&t=template.html
Water Travels Chaotically Through the Ground -
http://www.inel.gov/whats_new/press_releases/1998/prchaoticwater2.html
Subterranean Mapping Method Will Find Homes For Pollution-Eating Bacteria -
http://www.inel.gov/whats_new/press_releases/1998/prpollutioneatingbacteria2.html
INEEL and WSU Researchers Coax Bacteria To Clean Up Toxic Chromium -
http://www.inel.gov/whats_new/press_releases/1998/prbioremediationresearch2.html
"Inside-Out" Well Developed To Sample Water and Vapor In Aquifer -
http://www.inel.gov/whats_new/press_releases/1998/prinsideout2.html
Two INEEL Inventions Win International Recognition -
http://www.inel.gov/whats_new/press_releases/1997/r_d1002.html