Estimating Health Impacts from Multiple Contaminant Sources at the US DOE Pantex Plant. M. E. Kelley, F. Snyder, and D. Barton, Battelle, Columbus, OH; and J. W. Buck and D. L. Strenge, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
A modeling approach was developed for estimating future health impacts to receptors from multiple contaminant sources at the Pantex Plant. The primary contaminants associated with the source areas include explosives, organic compounds, metals and radionuclides. The Framework for Risk Analysis in Multimedia Environmental Systems (FRAMES) was used to link the Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPASÓ) Version 4.0 modules with a 3-D groundwater flow and contaminant transport model (Random-Walk 3D). The MEPAS source term release module calculated the time-varying contaminant mass fluxes based on site and source-zone characteristics and contaminant properties. The results from the source module were linked to the MEPAS vadose zone and atmospheric modules to estimate time-varying contaminant mass fluxes to the groundwater and air, respectively. FRAMES was used to link and model the individual source areas and calculate exposure media concentrations for receptor points at selected times. Predicted air, soil, and groundwater concentration were used in combination with unit risk factors (URFs) to derive an estimate of impacts at each grid cell over time. Contour maps of the total risk values are developed to portray spatial and temporal distribution of impacts.
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