Hanford landfill still growing

Work has started to make Hanford's massive landfill for low-level radioactive waste even larger.

Improvements also are being made to help the landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, or ERDF, keep up with the accelerated pace of environmental cleanup at the nuclear reservation.

Cleanup work at Hanford is increasing with the infusion of $1.96 billion in federal economic stimulus money. With more cleanup work comes the need for more waste disposal capacity, so the stimulus funding includes about $100 million for work at ERDF.

"The pace of cleanup at Hanford is totally linked to the capabilities of ERDF," said Dave Einan, an environmental engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates the Department of Energy project.

Now an average of 250 containers of waste are hauled to the landfill daily, each holding about 20 tons of waste. That includes dirt with low-level radioactive or hazardous chemical contamination dug up from the ground and potentially contaminated rubble from buildings and other structures that are being demolished.

As cleanup work gears up, particularly in central Hanford, DOE expects the landfill could receive up to 600 containers of waste a day, said Mark French, DOE federal project director for cleanup along the Columbia River.

Operations have come a long way since the landfill opened in 1996, accepting one container of waste on its first day and then building initially to 15 containers a day, Einan said.

The current expansion is the fourth since it opened, said Bruce Covert, waste operations director for Washington Closure Hanford, which manages the landfill for DOE. It will increase capacity by 50 percent to about 16 million tons.

Two new disposal areas, or cells, are being dug, each called a super cell because they will be twice the size of each of the first eight cells at the landfill. Each super cell will be 1,000 feet long, 500 feet wide and 70 feet deep. The doubled size is the result of technology advances and an opportunity to save money.

The last two normal-sized cells, cells 7 and 8, were finished this spring and work is beginning to fill them. Although cells 5 and 6 still have some space left, additional space at the bottom of the lined landfill is needed for some special materials, such as large pieces of equipment that have to be brought in on flatbed trailers, materials with higher radioactive content that are packed in special containers and lead bricks that are grouted inside containers.

Cells 7 and 8 were built by DelHur Industries of Hermiston under a Washington Closure subcontract. Because DelHur already was on-site and shovel-ready to use economic stimulus money, it also was awarded the contract to excavate super cell 9 without a bidding process.

As soon as next month, Washington Closure will request bids for the excavation of super cell 10 and for the construction of the liner and leachate collection system for both super cells. A second request for bids will be issued for independent quality assurance oversight for the construction.

Work should be completed in 2011.

DOE estimates the cost to construct the two super cells at about $55 million. An additional $45 million is being spent to make improvements needed to safely and efficiently handle the increased disposal traffic at the landfill.

That work includes adding three new access roads to different parts of the landfill, a new scale, a new container transfer area, rerouting of traffic flow and paving 1.3 miles of a back road into the ERDF complex. More equipment is being purchased, including trucks, disposal containers and four new bulldozers.

"We're setting up for an increased volume and long-range operations," Covert said.

Much of the landfill to date has been used for soil and debris cleaned up from along the Columbia River. That work is expected to continue, but in addition more waste is expected to be cleaned up in central Hanford by DOE contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and disposed of at ERDF.

The expansion and improvements should prepare the landfill to operate for the next 10 or 15 years, Covert said.

"ERDF is the cornerstone of cleanup," French said. "If we do not have a safe compliant disposal facility, cleanup stops."

-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com