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September 1, 2004
Beatty concerned with NTS waterCAB MEMBERS SAY GROUND WATER FLOW UNPREDICTABLE
By RICHARD STEPHENS The presentation by the NTS Community Advisory Board started with a course in Hydrology 101 from UNLV environmental studies student Savanna Reid. She was followed by CAB member Jenny Nelson, who, as a resident of Amargosa Valley, has a special interest in knowing when and where radioactive contaminants might migrate off the Nevada Test Site. The presentations underscored what has been said several times before. Although the flow from the test site is generally to toward the south and southwest, the area involved is so large and underground structure and formations are so complex and variable that no one can say with any degree of certainty where contaminants from the Nevada Test Site might flow - or when. Reid said that no one could say whether contaminants might be headed strait for Oasis Valley (Beatty is at its southern end), or whether it might bypass it altogether. And it is also possible that once any contaminants covered that distance they might be so diluted as to pose no health hazard. In talking about where the groundwater in the area comes from, Nelson said that very little of it comes from precipitation. Almost all the water penetrates shallowly into the soil and is lost to evapo-transpiration. The bulk of the water is glacial melt from the last ice age. She said that the water in her own well approximately five miles south of Lathrop Wells was tested, and that she was told it was approximately 36,000 years old. Town Board member Bert Bertram was rather pointed in his questioning regarding the placement wells drilled by the Department of Energy to monitor for radiation in groundwater. "We've had some indication from DOE that they are 'not in the business of chasing plumes,'" said Bertram, "But from a Beatty perspective, they'd better be chasing plumes." Reid said that it might be more productive to word the request more precisely. She said that there were around 800 possible plumes, and that the DOE was not prepared to chase all of them, but they might be amenable if asked to investigate a particular plume. CAB Chairman Charles Phillips said that his board would be making monitoring well recommendations in October. He said that the ability of a community advisory board to make such recommendations is unprecedented, and that other groups around the country have expressed envy at the level of cooperation his group has had from the DOE. Nelson said results of groundwater testing by the DOE are published in the Annual Site Environmental Report, and that a copy is available in the Amargosa Valley library and should also be in the Beatty library. |
