A dry trench was turned into a canal early Sunday morning at Hanford when nearly 580,000 gallons of water gushed from a broken water pipe downhill toward underground waste storage tanks. Workers monitoring the project noticed the drop in water pressure and walked the line until they spotted the geyser, isolated the pipe and got the water turned off.
Raw water is water that has been filtered from the nearby Columbia River.
The 14-inch pipe always contains the water, which is used for fire protection. However, both tank farms contain tanks that are believed to have previously leaked wastes into the soil. One concern with Sunday's pipe break is water could percolate in the soil around S tanks, pushing further into the soil possible leftover contaminations from previous leaks, Berriochoa said. Tests are under way now, but officials don't believe that has happened. Leak detection equipment showed surface levels had increased by a half-inch, but that's ordinary even with rain.