Watershed approach to risk assessment at Savannah River Site

The purpose of the watershed approach is to evaluate the sum total risk that the Savannah River site (SRS) poses to human health and the environment and to prioritize the remediation of individual sites based on their contribution to that risk. The SRS encompasses 300 mile2. It is drained by five major streams, all of which eventually flow into the Savannah River. A primary pathway for contamination to move from waste sites to points of exposure for human or ecological receptors is through groundwater migration and discharge to surface water in streams and wetlands. Thus the watershed program focuses on the impact of waste sites and operating facilities on the streams and the Savannah River