Case Study Two - Moab

The United States Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Moab site is the location of a former uranium ore-processing facility, which is now undergoing work as the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project to address the mill tailings and contamination in the underlying groundwater. Located in the state of Utah next to the Colorado River, the site spans 480 acres, of which the mill tailings pile covers 130 acres. The 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings are in the process of being relocated offsite to an engineered disposal cell at Crescent Junction, Utah.

The groundwater at Moab has both uranium and ammonia contaminant plumes, with a context of hydrogeological complexity and the need to protect critical habitat in the Colorado River. Specifically, groundwater includes a freshwater unit underlain by a brackish/brine unit, and the groundwater surface elevation responds to river stage fluctuations which complicate the groundwater hydraulics. In fiscal year 2023, a team of Network of National Laboratories for Environmental Management and Stewardship, DOE, and Moab contractor staff conducted a review of technology approaches for the site, resulting in a set of actionable recommendations to help meet objectives and move the remediation process forward while protecting receptors.

This case study will present information spanning from the site context through current and proposed actions. Presentations will start with the site history and move into the conceptual site model for the hydrogeology and contaminant plumes. The objectives, Groundwater Compliance Action Plan, and Interim actions will be discussed. The risk and environmental protection issues will be explained. The presentations will then cover information on the current field status and proposed solutions for making progress toward the transition of the site to long-term stewardship under the DOE Office of Legacy Management (DOE-LM). The case study will finish with a panel discussion on implementing environmental restoration technologies and the path to closure for the Moab UMTRA Site.

Agenda

Timeline (Pacific Time)	Presentation Title	Presenter
9:00–9:03 a.m.	Welcome and Introductory Remarks	Christian Johnson
9:03–9:20 a.m. ► Presentation PDF	Site History and Virtual Tour	James Ritchey
9:20–9:37 a.m. ► Presentation PDF	Hydrogeology, Conceptual Site Model, and Interim Actions	Ken Pill
9:37–9:54 a.m. ► Presentation PDF	Standards and Groundwater Compliance Action Plan (GCAP) Requirements	Elizabeth Moran
9:54–10:11 a.m. ► Presentation PDF	Risk and Environmental Protection Issues	Amoret Bunn
10:11–10:28 a.m. ► Presentation PDF	Proposed Solutions for Progress Towards Closure/ Transition to DOE-LM	Brian Looney
10:28–10:45 a.m. ► Presentation PDF	Field Status Update	Ken Pill
10:45–11:00 a.m.	BREAK
11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ► Presentation PDF	Panel Discussion: Implementing Technologies and Path to Closure for the Moab UMTRA Site Interactions with Fish and Wildlife/ Endangered Species Act Supplemental Standards/ Alternate Concentration Limits Institutional Controls Preparing for Site Transition to DOE-LM	Moderator: Elizabeth Moran Panelists: Chris Pulskamp Annette Moore Tony Mancuso Jennifer Nyman Ken Pill

Biographies

Moderators

Christian Johnson has worked on environmental restoration and remediation technology research and development at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) since 1992. He has designed and implemented bioremediation systems to treat hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents, authored guidance on performance and end-state evaluation of pump-and-treat and soil vapor extraction, and developed remediation decision support software such as RT3D, SOCRATES, TRAC, and Soil Vapor Extraction Endstate Tool. Johnson is also part of the Network of National Laboratories for Environmental Management and Stewardship, helping with reviews and recommendations for DOE-LM sites.
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Elizabeth Moran is the environmental manager at the DOE-EM Moab, Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC). Prior to working for DOE-EM, she worked as a contractor for the UMTRA Project for over 17 years as a hydrogeologist and environmental scientist and has focused mainly on groundwater contamination, habitat protection, and groundwater remediation. As the project approaches closure, Moran has been working on determining the final groundwater compliance action strategy and the end-state vision of the project. Prior to UMTRA, Moran was a geologist at the Nevada National Security site.

Speakers

James Ritchey North Wind Portage	James Ritchey has worked as a groundwater technician for at the Moab UMTRA site for the last 14 years. He has been responsible for operating and maintaining the initial and interim action systems at the site. Ritchey is also responsible for managing groundwater and surface water sampling events and manages and validates field and analytical data for the groundwater program. _________________________________________________
Ken Pill North Wind Portage	Ken Pill is the Moab UMTRA Project groundwater program manager. He has worked on the Moab Project for over 20 years, assisting with the site characterization, groundwater interim action remedial system design and installation, and operation management. Currently, he is involved with the Moab Project GCAP development. _________________________________________________
Elizabeth Moran DOE Moab, EMCBC	Elizabeth Moran is the environmental manager at the DOE-EM Moab, Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC). Prior to working for DOE-EM, she worked as a contractor for the UMTRA Project for over 17 years as a hydrogeologist and environmental scientist and has focused mainly on groundwater contamination, habitat protection, and groundwater remediation. As the project approaches closure, Moran has been working on determining the final groundwater compliance action strategy and the end-state vision of the project. Prior to UMTRA, Moran was a geologist at the Nevada National Security site. _________________________________________________
Amoret Bunn PNNL	Amoret Bunn has over 25 years of service as an environmental engineer at PNNL. Her experiences range from ecological and human risk assessments and health evaluations, remediation activities for contaminated soil and groundwater, conducting environmental assessments for engineered systems, development of ecological risk assessment software, Simple MultiAttribute Rating Technique applications, and working with groups of people with various technical training and cultural backgrounds on environmental impact assessments. _________________________________________________
Brian Looney SRNL	Brian Looney is a research environmental engineer at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and adjunct professor at Clemson University. For the past 39 years, he has coordinated applied research and the development and deployment for environmental characterization and clean-up methods. His work focuses on subsurface access techniques, remediation methods, and characterization tools, including horizontal drilling, bioremediation, and tracer testing. Currently, Looney supports technical activities related to attenuation-based remedies and he serves as a senior technical advisor supporting the DOE-EM program. _________________________________________________
Christopher Pulskamp DOE Moab, EMCBC	Christopher Pulskamp has been involved in environmental compliance, site characterization and soil and groundwater remediation projects at DOE and Department of Defense sites since 1997. He began his engineering career at Los Alamos National Laboratory in environmental compliance and subsequently worked for the Department of Defense for 15 years in regulatory permitting, environmental remediation, project management and oversight for a variety of projects including demilitarization of chemical weapons. Pulskamp holds a MS in environmental engineering from New Mexico State University and is registered professional engineer. _________________________________________________
Tony Mancuso Utah Department of Natural Resources	Tony Mancuso works for the Utah Department of Natural Resources, leading a team of rangers who work to preserve habitat, scenery, water quality, and public access. The floodway of the Colorado River is public land, and their work includes noxious weed control, access and campsite monitoring, neighboring landowner partnerships, and coordinating authorizations for the use of riverbeds. _________________________________________________
Jennifer Nyman Geosyntec	Jennifer Nyman is a senior principal engineer in the Oakland, CA office of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. She has more than two decades of experience in the investigation and remediation of soil and groundwater, with a particular emphasis on biogeochemistry. Nyman has served as program and project manager, technical expert, and technical lead on some of the nation’s largest and most complex sites. She seeks to build, support, and execute site strategies that are technically defensible, begin with an end state in mind, and meet project goals. Her research and development contributions include publications in national technical journals and books, an Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council award, and participation on a National Science Foundation advisory board. Nyman received her PhD from Stanford University, and she is a registered professional engineer in the state of California. _________________________________________________
Annette Moore DOE-LM	Annette Moore is an infomation technology (IT) specialist and Environmental and Geospatial Data Management program manager for DOE-LM. Her primary roles are as manager includes providing oversight for the IT Governance and IT Operations teams. Her personal mission is to make sure that policy, process, and procedures are implemented and aligned to meet all federal requirements, to wisely utilize best practices and to provide maximum public benefit and optimized use of data throughout the data lifecycle. Moore has 15 years of experience managing technical projects in the realms of satellite data collection, cybersecurity, networking, governance, and technical risk assessment. She has a BS in geology from Illinois State University, an MS in remote sensing of geology from University of Wyoming, and a certificate in Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure and Operational Technology from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.