APPENDIX WIPP
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THE TRUTH ABOUT WIPP GEOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY
by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
1. The WIPP site is wet. It was supposed to be dry. This was the rationale
behind disposing of nuclear waste in salt beds. The very fact that salt beds
still exist is proof that they have been isolated from circulating groundwater
ever since they were deposited. But the salt beds of the Salado Formation
were formed when an ancient sea evaporated, leaving the salt behind. Trapped
within the salt beds are pockets of brine that never evaporated. These brine
pockets migrate toward areas of low pressure. As soon as the WIPP tunnels were
excavated, brine began seeping into the roof and walls. This was unexpected.
2. The waste brought to WIPP would be buried in steel drums placed in direct
contact with the salt beds. Those fancy containers you have heard about are
for transportation only. When the waste gets to WIPP, the DOE will unpack
the transportation containers and bury the waste in steel drums, just like
they always do. Brine will continue to seep into the WIPP repository.
In a matter of years the steel drums will corrode, and the brine will begin
dissolving the waste, creating a slurry of radioactive waste and water.
3. The WIPP site is already breached. The Salado salt beds are deep
underground, beneath the water table. When the DOE drilled the WIPP access
shafts, they had to drill through groundwater aquifers in order to reach
the salt beds. Also within the WIPP site are four deep boreholes penetrating
deeper than the waste repository. These shafts and boreholes are ready-made
pathways for contaminated water. DOE must be able to seal the shafts and
plug the boreholes perfectly, forever, and we doubt that they can do it.
4. There is pressurized brine beneath the WIPP repository. This is not to
be confused with the brine pockets in the Salado Formation. This is a brine
reservoir, beneath the Salado, in the Castile Formation. When this brine
reservoir was encountered at a borehole called WIPP-12, located one-half mile
north of the waste repository, 1500 barrels a day flowed for forty days, all
the way to the land surface. This is because the brine is under artesian
pressure, and it is the geologic mechanism, the driving force, which could
bring the slurry of radioactive waste and salt water to the overlying
aquifers or to the land surface.
5. The WIPP site is vulnerable to human intrusion. There are extensive
deposits of oil, gas and potash at the WIPP site. Oil and gas wells now
surround the site, and the oil and gas fields extend directly beneath the
waste repository. As long as DOE controls the site, oil and gas exploration
can be prevented. But when institutional controls fail, someone searching
for oil will drill directly through the waste repository and into the
pressurized brine reservoir, creating an instant breach of containment.
The brine will flow to the land surface if the oil well is cased, and into
the groundwater aquifers if the oil well is not cased.
6. The WIPP site is in karst. In most cases, groundwater moves through
porous rocks, like sandstone, flowing uniformly and predictably. The problem
with karst is that groundwater flows more rapidly through less space, through
fractures enlarged by solution, or through underground caverns. The aquifers
above the Salado Formation, both the Rustler Formation and the Dewey Lake
Redbeds, are karst, with caverns in dolomite and gypsum, even in sandstone
and shale. The caverns get larger with time; and the larger the caverns,
the less the amount of radiation that sticks to the rocks as contaminated
water flows through them.
7. Drinking water will be contaminated. There are wells in the Dewey Lake
Redbeds and the Rustler Formation, within and near the WIPP site, which
contain potable, drinkable water. These aquifers discharge in Nash Draw,
where salt lakes will be contaminated, and they will overflow eventually
into the Pecos River.
8. The WIPP site will get worse over time. As more and more potash is mined
in the Salado Formation, the overlying aquifers will slump and fracture.
Every major rainstorm will recharge the Rustler Formation with fresh water
to dissolve more dolomite and gypsum. The waste will be radioactive for
a very long time. Ice ages, which are cyclical, are inevitable. The climate
will change when the glacier advances. There will be more rainfall, less
evaporation, and more groundwater, and the rocks will dissolve more rapidly.
Richard Hayes Phillips holds a Ph.D. in karst geomorphology from the
University of Oregon. His dissertation is entitled: “The Prospects for
Regional Groundwater Contamination due to Karst Landforms in Mescalero Caliche
at the WIPP Site near Carlsbad, New Mexico.” During his field work he camped
at the WIPP site for eight months and dug one thousand auger holes and ten
backhoe trenches, exposing holes of all sizes in the Mescalero caliche
and demonstrating that rainwater readily reaches the Dewey Lake Redbeds.
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