Washington Closure Hanford has emptied 200 gallons of the hazardous chemical hexavalent chromium from an underground pipeline near the Columbia River, proving it has learned from its mistakes.

In 2003 the Department of Energy was fined $120,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency after a Washington Closure subcontractor spilled the chemical as a pipe was removed elsewhere at Hanford and then did not immediately report the spill.

But this time the EPA has praise for Washington Closure.

"This was a very successful campaign in getting the chrome out in a very safe manner," said Laura Buelow, EPA environmental scientist. "They did it quickly, but carefully."

Emptying the pipeline also removes a major risk for contamination of ground water and the Columbia River from the hexavalent chromium. The chemical can cause cancer in humans and is harmful to fish, including salmon, in much smaller concentrations.

The pipeline, which stretched across nearly a third of a mile, was used starting in 1963 to connect the water treatment facilities at B Reactor and nearby C Reactor. Hexavalent chromium was added to water taken from the Columbia River to prevent corrosion when it was used to cool the reactors.

When work began to dig up the pipeline, Washington Closure didn't know whether it would be empty or could contain as much as 600 gallons of hexavalent chromium. It also didn't know what shape it would find the pipe in.

Washington Closure mapped out where it believed the pipeline ran based on historic drawings and then used ground-penetrating radar to determine exactly where it was, said Dean Strom, Washington Closure project manager.

As the dirt was moved away from the pipeline with an excavator, a spotter watched for any discolored soil that might indicate chromium had leaked from the pipe.

Once the pipeline was exposed, it was surveyed to identify its low spots and high spots. The pipeline was vented by drilling into the high spots unlikely to still contain liquid chemical and then the hexavalent chromium was collected from the pipeline by drilling into it at the low spots.

The liquid recovered was 39 percent pure hexavalent chromium, said Tom Post, a DOE environmental engineer. But fortunately the pipe was in good shape considering its age, Strom said.

The project should be completed for a little less than $500,000. But DOE estimated that if the chromium had spilled into the dirt the cost to clean up the soil and the ground water would have cost tens of millions of dollars.

"It's the best outcome we could have to get to the source of the contamination," Post said. "Washington Closure did a tremendous job with the sampling and recovery."

Work began in February and by mid-July all potentially contaminated material should be trucked to a landfill in central Hanford. The piping already has been sent to the landfill and soil also will be sent there. The hexavalent chromium will be treated and disposed of off site.

The hole left from the removal of the pipe will be backfilled and replanted.