DOE EM Update:

Sept. 26, 2023

The Hanford Site’s 200 West Pump and Treat Facility is undergoing an expansion to boost treatment capacity from 2,500 to 3,750 gallons per minute.

Crews Drilling Deep to Expand Groundwater Treatment at Hanford

RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers with EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) are expanding the capacity of the Hanford Site’s already robust groundwater treatment system, a move that could shorten the time needed to reach cleanup goals and reduce long-term operating costs.

Located in the center of the 580-square-mile site, the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility is a key component of Hanford’s award-winning groundwater remediation program. Workers are installing more than a dozen additional extraction wells this year that will be connected to the facility to capture even more chemical and radiological contaminants.

“Groundwater treatment has been one of Hanford’s most successful cleanup programs over the past two decades,” said Naomi Jaschke, director of EM Hanford’s Soil and Groundwater Division. “We continue to shrink areas of contamination throughout the site to meet cleanup goals and protect the Columbia River.”

EM contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company is installing more than a dozen additional extraction wells this year to support expansion of the Hanford Site’s largest groundwater treatment facility. The Hanford Site annually treats more than 2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater.

The strategically placed extraction wells pump contaminated water from the aquifer, which can be more than 200 feet below the surface in the center of the Hanford Site. Treatment facilities use multiple technologies to remove contaminants from the groundwater.

Treated water is injected back into the aquifer outside the areas of contamination. This helps push more contaminated groundwater toward the extraction wells.

The 200 West facility, and five other smaller facilities located along the Columbia River, make up the six pump-and-treat systems CPCCo operates. Collectively, the systems have treated more than 2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater annually for nine consecutive years, including more than 2.3 billion gallons in fiscal year 2023, which ends Sept. 30.

The 200 West facility alone treats more than 1 billion gallons each year. That figure will increase by up to 650 million gallons after the additional wells are installed and connected to the plant over the next year.

“This is the largest expansion of the 200 West Pump and Treat extraction well network that we’ve undertaken to date,” said Jim Geiger, CPCCo well drilling manager. “The pump-and-treat systems have already removed nearly 700 tons of contaminants from the aquifer over the life of Hanford’s groundwater treatment program, and this project will allow us to more efficiently build on that number as we continue to reduce risk to the Columbia River.”

-Contributor: Karisa Saywers