Determination of tritium and 14C concentration in two hydrostratigraphic units below the University of California, Davis, waste burial holes at the Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research/South Campus Disposal Site (LEHR/SCDS).

The Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research site at the University of California at Davis was used as a disposal site for tritium and 14C waste generated by campus related research. This low-level radioactive waste was disposed of by shallow land burial from 1956 to 1974 in waste burial holes and resulted in extensive contamination of soils and groundwater at the LEHR/SCDS. In part, due to this contamination, the LEHR/SCDS was placed on the National Priority List in May of 1994. In 1999, soils in the vicinity of the waste burial holes were subject to a CERCLA Removal Action. To this day elevated tritium and 14C concentrations are found in two groundwater monitoring wells that are located down gradient from the waste burial holes. The Bioscreen, Natural Attenuation Decision Support System software program was used, along with site-specific hydrogeologic conditions, to estimate the maximum source zone concentrations in the water bearing intervals below the waste burial holes. The first order decay process, and assumptions of horizontal flow provided reasonably accurate estimates of contaminant concentrations in the unconfined portion of the water bearing interval, but results for the confined portion of the water bearing intervals were mixed. Dose estimates for the time period of maximum contaminant concentration in the aquifer below the waste burial holes, predicted by modeling, suggested that the 4 mrem drinking water standard had not been exceeded at this site.