S EPA United States Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Environmental Protection Office of Research and Development Agency Washington, DC 20460 July 1993 PROGRAM FACT SHEET Demonstration of the TechTran Technology PalanganaUraniumMine Site Benavides, Texas Introduction The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) iden- tifies new methods for hazardous waste cleanup through its Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program. Created in 1986, this program demonstrates and evaluates innovative treatment technologies that may significantly reduce the toxicity, mobility, or volume of hazardous waste. The SITE Program also generates reliable performance and cost information on the tech- nologies for use in evaluating cleanup alternatives for similarly contaminated sites. The technology proposed for demonstration at the Palangana Uranium Mine site was developed by TechTran, Inc. (TechTran) of Houston, Texas. Thedem- onstration will determine how effectively the technology removes naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) from groundwater at the site. EPA's SITE Program Each year, EPA solicits proposals from private technol- ogy developers to demonstrate innovative technologies under the SITE Program. For each technology selected, EPA does the following, often with input from state and regional agencies: Identifies a site with wastes suitable for treatment Prepares a technology quality assurance project plan Prepares a fact sheet Prepares the demonstration site Conducts and audits field sampling and laboratory analyses Organizes a Visitors' Day for viewing the technology demonstration Evaluates technology performance Prepares reports summarizing the demonstration Technology Description TechTran's technology is designed to remove low to moderate levels of NORM from contaminated water. Other potential applications of the technology include cleaning up NORM-contaminated liquid wastes from industrial and oil-drilling operations and contaminated groundwater at nuclear facilities. The technology removes contaminants through chemical complexing, adsorption, and absorption. The system uses a proprietary complexing media, URAL, which is an insoluble granular material. As the URAL is combined with contaminated water, the NORM begins to form solids. Solids are removed as sludge by precipitation and filtration. Precipitated solids formed during the SITE demonstration will be collected in 55-gallon drums and temporarily stored on-site before disposal at an autho- rized off-site facility. 1 ------- A schematic drawing of the TechTran treatment unit is shown in Figure 1. Primary components of the unit are the pump, URAL feed unit, and the process unit. The pump delivers contaminated water from the east uranium dis- posal pond through the URAL feed line, where URAL is introduced. The water and URAL mixture is then fed into the process unit, where mixing, precipitation, and clari- fication take place. The NORM precipitate collects in the bottom of the process unit, and is continuously removed by a precipitate removal pump and stored in 55-gallon drums. Then, to meet regulatory discharge standards, hydrochloric acid is added to the treated water to lower thepH from caustic levels (pH = 13) to near neutral levels (pH =7.5). Treated water then passes through a filtration system that removes any residual suspended solids before discharge into the west uranium disposal pond. Site Description The Palangana Uranium Mine site, located in Benavides, Texas, is about 50 miles west of Corpus Christi (see Figure 2). The site occupies 161 acres and is surrounded primarily by undeveloped land. It is located in an area known as the South Texas Uranium Province. In 1968, Union Carbide Corporation, the original owner and operator, began testing on-site leaching of uranium at the site. This process involved injecting chemicals into the groundwater aquifer through injection wells. The groundwater mixture was then pumped from the aquifer through extraction wells and the uranium was concen- trated through evaporation. Groundwater with concen- trations of uranium too low to be of value was transferred to disposal ponds for dilution and eventual use in irriga- tion. Figure 3 shows the disposal ponds, well areas, and irrigation area. Union Carbide later began commercial operations that included leaching, processing, and distributing uranium. In 1981, Chevron Resources Incorporated (Chevron) bought the Palangana Uranium Mine and limited its activities to small-scale operations. In 1986, active leach- ing of uranium was discontinued. Full-scale environmen- tal restoration of the site began in 1986. The groundwater at the site is primarily contaminated with uranium. Rio Grande Resources Company bought Chevron's interest in 1991 and has assumed responsibility for final restora- tion and site closure which are scheduled to be completed in 1995. URAL Figure 1 -Techtran Technology Diagram 2 ------- mi SOUTH TEXAS URANIUM PROVINCE NOTTOSCALE Figure 2 - Site Location The uranium leaching operations contaminated the dis- posal ponds at the site with low to moderate levels of NORM, which consists of various isotopes of uranium and associated decay products. The NORM detected in the disposal ponds are gross alpha and beta particle- emitting contaminants, uranium, radium-226, and tho- rium-230. Evaluate the effects of changing certain test condi tions on technology performance Determine the costs of operating the treatment system Identify any factors that may affect future use of the system Technology Demonstration The Palangana Uranium Mine site was selected for this demonstration after a treatability study on disposal pond water from the site in September 1992. The demonstra- tion is scheduled to begin July 26 and will last for 1 week. The treatment system to be used for the demonstration will be similar to the one used in the treatability study. However, unit testing will be more intensive. The objectives of the demonstration are to: Evaluate the technology's performance in removing NORM from the groundwater Reproduce the system's performance through three repetitive runs IRRIGATION AREA PROPOSED DEMONSTRATION AREA ACCESS ROAD Figure 3 - Site Map ------- EPA has prepared a detailed Demonstration Plan that describes specific methods and procedures for testing and evaluating this technology. When the demonstration is complete, the findings will be complied and analyzed in a report. This report will be used to evaluate alternatives for cleaning up similar sites across the country. Additional Information Questions or comments about the proposed demonstration or the SITE Program should be directed to the EPA Project Manager, Annette Gatchett. Specific questions regarding the demonstration site or the technology should be directed to the following individuals: U.S. EPA Rio Grande Resources Company TechTran, Inc. Annette Gatchett SITE Project Manager Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory 26 West Martin Luther King Drive Cincinnati, Ohio 45268 513-569-7697 Carlos Hughes c- Rio Grande Resources Company P.O. Box 528 Benavides, Texas 78341 512-256-3337 Ted Daniels TechTran, Inc. 5401 Mitchelldale, Suite A4 Houston, Texas 77092 713-688-2390 $ EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 26 West Martin Luther King Drive Cincinnati, Ohio 45268 Attention: Annette Gatchett /^u"U(jSTAG£ jul -r n W- ^ S -29; r. v. «j*» '.7ov Magalie Breville, STLP U.S. EPA, Region 2 ERRD, Room 13-100 26 Federal Plaza New York, NY 10278 4 Photocopied on Recycled Paper ------- |