There are four groundwater treatment facilities located along the Columbia River at the Hanford Site including the HX Pump and Treat Facility as seen above. All groundwater treatment facilities are using the newer resin.

A new resin introduced to groundwater treatment facilities along the Columbia River beginning in 2010 is helping DOE avoid $3 million in costs annually.

RICHLAND, Wash. – In 2010, workers with EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) at the Hanford Site began using a new type of resin — a material used to remove contamination from groundwater — in its treatment facilities to improve efficiencies and lower operating costs. 

   At that time, replacing an older resin with the new resin was expected to reduce operating costs by approximately $1 million per year. Planners now estimate the annual cost reduction is approximately $3 million per year, triple the original estimate. 

   “Our goal is to treat groundwater to protect human health and the environment, especially the Columbia River,” said Michael Cline, director of the RL Soil and Groundwater Division. “This enhancement is allowing us to achieve our cleanup goals in a more cost-effective way.” 

   The resin is used to strip a toxic chemical, hexavalent chromium, from groundwater pumped from areas near the river, which runs through the site in southeast Washington state. The systems are treating contamination that resulted from the operation of Hanford’s plutonium production reactors during the Cold War.

   The older resin used in multiple treatment facilities needed changing approximately 100 times a year to ensure contaminated water flowing through the resin was cleaned to treatment standards. 

   “Using this resin reduces the starts and stops enhancing groundwater treatment efficiency, because it only needs to be changed out about every three years, compared to the old resin, which needed to be changed about every three weeks,” said RL Soil and Groundwater Division project lead Jim Hanson.

   The new resin can hold more contamination, lasts longer, and workers do not have to replace the resin as often. CH2M estimates more than 2,200 resin changes have been avoided since switching to the newer treatment resin.

   “This is huge for groundwater cleanup at Hanford, and we’ve managed to save time and manpower with this new resin,” said Dean Neshem, with CHPRC. Neshem is in a team of engineers that transitioned groundwater treatment systems along the river to the new resin.  

   “Our workforce is consistently coming up with ways to enhance our groundwater treatment program and because of our great team, we are treating record amounts of contaminated groundwater at the Hanford Site,” said Karen Wiemelt, vice president of CHPRC’s Soil and Groundwater Remediation Project.

   An additional benefit is the resin can be disposed of onsite at Hanford’s engineered landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. This eliminates additional potential hazards and costs associated with preparation and shipment of the resin to an offsite facility for regeneration, which was required with the previously used resin.