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.
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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
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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

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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
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Magalie Breville, STLP
U.S. EPA, Region 2
ERRD, Room 13-100
26 Federal Plaza
New York, NY 10278
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