With all the water problems that Texas is experiencing, and with the growing need for fresh water that Texas has, I would think that the state would be going out of its way to protect the valuable resource contained in this aquifer. But that does not seem to be the case.
In May of 2009, tons of toxic waste dredged from a 40-mile stretch of the Hudson River in New York, will be shipped to a dump site in Andrews county to be buried. (Andrews county is marked by the black dot on the map above. As you can see, it sits over the southern edge of the aquifer.) This waste is full of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
PCB's are known to cause lung and liver damage and are also carcinogens. General Electric is shipping the toxic waste to Texas, where it has hired a Dallas-based company, Waste Control Specialists, to do the actual burial. A spokesman for Waste Control Specialists says, "What gives this site a position of strength for this type of disposal is that it's sitting on a very solid, thick clay formation that holds the waste in place."
I would like to believe what he says, but I'm old enough to remember that the residents of Love Canal were assured they were building in a safe place too -- until one day they woke up to the fact they were living in one of the most toxic places in America. Are we going to wake up a few years from now to find our water has been poisoned with PCB's?
To make matters even worse, that's not the only kind of waste destined to be dumped in Andrews county. It will not be long before they also start dumping radioactive waste there. Wouldn't that be a fine addition to our water!
Cyrus Reed, a a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, says the state has not adequately studied just how suitable the site is for dumping. He says, "We believe if you're going to grant permits for additional waste to come in, you better make darn sure that none of this stuff ever reaches the aquifer below. We're not sure there's sufficient monitoring to make sure that doesn't happen."
I would go even further. Monitoring isn't going to do any good if those poisons do start leaking through to the aquifer. The only way to assure the safety of the water in the aquifer is to NOT DUMP TOXIC WASTE ON TOP OF IT! This whole idea is sheer insanity.
Lest any of you think this is just a West Texas and Panhandle problem, remember the little 3-person election that was just held out here creating a new water district? That was so millions of gallons of water from this same aquifer could be sold to other parts of Texas. This could well be your future drinking water that is being put in danger.
Once again, our state Republican leadership has put corporate dollars over the future health and safety of the citizens of Texas.
As a semi-retired, registered professional geologist, with vivid memories of the debate associated with the potential development of a deep geologic repository for disposal of used nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste at the Deaf Smith Canyon site in Texas in the 1980s, my first reaction to the article on the potential contamination of the Ogallala aquifer by the GE waste being disposed of at the Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) site in Texas was; “don’t they ever learn.” However, since the only geology-related information provided in the article was a map showing the horizontal extension of the Ogallala Formation, I decided to dig up information on the three-dimensional picture before passing final judgment. I therefore accessed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) web page (www.tceq.com) and came across a recent application from WCS to also dispose of radioactive (by-product material) waste at the site. I accessed this application and searched it for supplementary information relevant to the potential contamination of the Ogallala aquifer.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading and digesting the information provided in the WCS by-product material disposal application via the TCEQ web page, based on my education, which includes degrees in Civil Engineering and in Geology, and more than 45 years of related experience in the siting and development of a wide range of underground structures and facilities, I cannot find any information in the by-product material disposal application that would lead me to conclude that the GE waste or any radioactive waste disposed of at the WCS site would be able to reach and contaminate even the closest portion of the Ogallala aquifer. Following are three of my main reasons for this conclusion:
1. In the vertical direction, the 1.6-66 million year old Ogallala Formation is located above the at least 208 million year old Cooper Canyon Formation in which the waste will be disposed of at the WCS site (see e.g., Figure 4 provided under “Related Documents” on TCEQ’s Radioactive Waste web page). The main implication of this condition is that any waste moving from the WCS landfills to the Ogallala Formation would have to defy gravity.
2. At the WCS site, all waste will be disposed, contained, and isolated within man-made “coffins” having many layers of natural and engineered materials with well-proven hazardous and radioactive waste containment and isolation characteristics.
3. The groundwater elevations in Figure 9 under “Related Documents” on TCEQ’s Radioactive Waste web page show that
a. The local groundwater table (dry line) encroaches on the westernmost portion of the by-product material landfill only. All other landfills at the WCS site will be located above the local groundwater table.
b. The groundwater at the WCS site flows to the south-southwest, which is in the opposite direction to where the corresponding depth of the Ogallala Formation is located. (Based on the myriad of boreholes shown in Figure 8, the groundwater conditions at the WCS site should be very-well known and understood.)
In summation, even in the hypothetical event that (a) hazardous and/or radioactive waste would be able to penetrate the multi-layered “coffins” surrounding the disposed waste and (b) liquids would become available to transport the waste, in my professional opinion, the three-dimensional picture of the prevailing geology and hydrology at the WCS site summarized under items 1 and 3 above should dispel any and all concerns and anxieties about waste disposed of at the WCS site being able to reach and contaminate the Ogallala aquifer.