Niagara Falls storage site annual environmental report for calendar year 1990, Lewiston, New York

Environmental monitoring of the US DOE Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS) and surrounding area began in 1981. NFSS is part of a DOE program to decontaminate or otherwise control sites where residual radioactive materials remain from the early years of the nation's atomic energy program or from commercial, operations causing conditions the Congress has authorized DOE to remedy. Environmental monitoring systems at NFSS include sampling networks for radon concentrations in air; external gamma radiation exposure; and total uranium and radium-226 concentrations in surface water sediments, and groundwater. Additionally, several nonradiological parameters are routinely measured in groundwater. During 1990, the average ambient air radon concentration (including background) at NFSS ranged from 0.3 to 0.7 pCi/L (0.01 to 0.03 Bq/L); the maximum at any location for any quarter was 1.6 pCi/L (0.06 Bq/L). The average on-site external gamma radiation exposure level was 69 mR/yr; the average at the property line was 68 mR/yr (including background). The average background radiation level in the area was 66 mR/yr. Average annual concentrations of radium-226 and total uranium in surface water ranged from 0.4E-9 to 0.9E-9 μCi/m1 (0.02 to 0.03 Bq/L) and from 5E-9 to 9E-9 μCi/m1 (0.2 to 0.3 Bq/L), respectively. Routine analyses of groundwater samples from NFSS included the indicator parameters total organic carbon, total organic halides, pH, and specific conductivity