BNL RELEASES 1997 ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMARY

UPTON, NY - The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) today issued its Site Environmental Report for the year 1997. The report presents the results of BNL's environmental monitoring program and provides an assessment of the Lab's environmental performance in 1997.

BNL maintains a comprehensive environmental monitoring program. This program provides early warning of any unexpected environmental conditions, monitors potential pathways of exposure to the public and environment, measures potential environmental impacts from BNL operations, and provides data to demonstrate compliance with applicable regulatory and permit limits. Highlights of the report include the following:

Pollution-prevention and waste minimization efforts continued to pay dividends at the Laboratory in 1997 by eliminating waste for several processes, substituting non-hazardous materials for older industrial processes, and adopting compaction methods to reduce the volume of metallic bulk waste.
In 1997, the maximum credible radiation dose due to Laboratory air emissions was 0.07 millirem (mrem). Using computer modeling, this dose is calculated for a hypothetical individual residing at the Laboratory boundary for the entire year. This dose is equal to 1/140th of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standard of 10 mrem for the air pathway. The calculated maximum credible dose to an individual consuming water from potable wells containing tritium (just beyond the Laboratory's eastern boundary) was 0.1 mrem, forty times less than the EPA limit of 4 mrem for this pathway. Calculated maximum credible doses due to fish and deer consumption were 0.16 mrem and 9 mrem, respectively. The dose due to deer consumption is based on a conservative consumption estimate of 67 pounds per person. The federal dose limit for members of the public from all man-made exposure pathways is 100 mrem per year. The average U.S. citizen receives approximately 300 mrem per year from natural background sources of radiation.
In 1997, BNL's sewage treatment plant (a discharge point regulated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation) achieved a compliance rate of greater than 99 percent for liquid discharges. Compliance exceptions occurred for iron (four times), ammonia nitrogen (once) and silver (once). Tritium concentrations in the sewage treatment plant discharge were at their lowest levels since routine monitoring began in 1966. During 1997, the average tritium concentration was less than seven percent of the EPA drinking water standard. For surface water samples, all water quality measurements were consistent with off-site control locations and met the N.Y. State drinking water standards.
BNL performed an extensive characterization of the High Flux Beam Reactor spent-fuel pool tritium plume in 1997, including installing more than 100 temporary monitoring wells and analyzing more than 1,800 groundwater samples. An interim remediation project was implemented as a precautionary measure to ensure tritium would not migrate beyond the site boundary at levels above drinking water standards. Water was removed from the spent-fuel pool in December 1997, eliminating the source of the tritium. The plume, which is completely on the BNL property, continues to be addressed under the Lab's environmental restoration program.
Other areas of the BNL site where past activities have caused groundwater, soil and sediment contamination continued to undergo monitoring and cleanup in 1997 under the federal Superfund program, which regulates cleanup of more than 1,200 sites nationwide. Environmental remediation at BNL is conducted in cooperation with the Suffolk County Department of Health Services (SCDHS), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

BNL has published site environmental reports each year from 1962-1966 and 1971-1997. A summary report for the years 1967-1970 is also available. These reports help identify long-term trends associated with BNL activities. These trends indicate a steady reduction of BNL releases to the environment. This effort to reduce releases is a major commitment of BNL.

Data summarized in the 1997 report were obtained through testing performed by BNL or independent laboratories, the SCDHS, the New York State Department of Health and NYSDEC. To obtain a copy of the report or a summary booklet, call (516) 344-2345 or visit a library near BNL. The report is also available on the BNL web site at http://www.bnl.gov.

Brookhaven National Laboratory creates and operates major facilities available to university, industrial and government personnel for basic and applied research in the physical, biomedical and environmental sciences, and in selected energy technologies. The Laboratory is operated by Brookhaven Science Associates, a not-for-profit research management company, under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.

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