12-005 Code Vt. R. 12-032-005-X
40 CFR 141.15: Maximum contaminant levels for radium-226, radium-228, and gross alpha particle radioactivity in community water systems.
The following are the maximum contaminant levels for radium-226, radium-228, and gross alpha radioactivity:
40 CFR 141.16: Maximum contaminant levels for beta particle and photon radioactivity from man-made radionuclides in community water systems.
Table A -- AVERAGE ANNUAL CONCENTRATIONS ASSUMED TO PRODUCE A TOTAL BODY OR ORGAN DOSE OF 4 MREM/YR
| Radionuclides | Critical Organ | pCi/liter |
Tritium | Total body | 20,000 |
Strontium-90 | Bone marrow | 8 |
CFR - An acronym for Code of Federal Regulations.
Buffer Zone - a portion of the disposal site that is controlled by the licensee and that lies under the disposal units and between the disposal units and the boundary of the site ( 10 CFR 61.2) . The buffer zone shall be of adequate dimensions to carry out environmental monitoring activities and take mitigative measures if needed ( 10 CFR 61.52(8)) (cf 1-402, below).
Certification Data Package - A submittal containing existing, available information sufficient to provide a basis on which the Agency can evaluate the ability of a site to meet the siting regulations.
Class A Waters - the waters of all lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, natural or artificial, used exclusively for public water supply prior to July 1, 1971, and all waters flowing into such lakes, ponds, and reservoirs unless reclassified (10 V.S.A. 1253).
Class I Groundwaters - groundwater suitable for use as a public water supply, which has uniformly excellent character, and is not exposed to activities which pose a risk to its current or potential use as a public water supply (10 V.S.A. 1392-1394).
Class II Groundwaters - groundwater suitable for use as a public water supply which has uniformly excellent character and which is exposed to activities which pose a risk to its current or potential use as a public water supply (10 V.S.A. 1392-1394).
Community Water System - means a public water system which serves at least ten (10) service connections used by year-round residents or regularly serves at least 25 year-round residents.
Design Life - a period of time which includes the active life of the facility (that time during which waste is being placed in the facility), the post-closure period, the institutional control period (presently federally mandated as up to 100 years), and any additional time period required by the Agency under 10 V.S.A. 7023(b).
Disposal - the isolation of radioactive wastes from the biosphere inhabited by humans and containing their food chains by emplacement in a land disposal facility (modified from 10 CFR 61.2) .
Disposal Area - the area of land that includes all the disposal units, but not the buffer zone.
Disposal Facility - means the land, buildings, and equipment which is intended to be used for the disposal of radioactive waste. (Modified from "Land Disposal Facility" 10 CFR 61)
Disposal Site - that portion of a land disposal facility which is used for disposal of waste. It consists of disposal units and a buffer zone ( 10 CFR 61.2)
Disposal Unit - a discrete portion of the disposal site into which waste is placed for disposal ( 10 CFR 61.2)
Environmental Monitoring System - the equipment and procedures required to provide data to evaluate the potential health and environmental impacts during both construction and the operation of the facility and to enable the evaluation of the long-term effects and the need for mitigative measures. The monitoring system must be capable of providing early warning of releases of radionuclides in the disposal site before they leave the site boundary ( 10 CFR 61.53(c)) .
Engineered Barrier - a structure or device that is constructed to improve the land disposal facility's ability to meet the performance objectives (modified from 10 CFR 61.2) .
EPA - An acronym for United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Exclusion Factors - those attributes of land areas that, on the basis of the siting regulations, would require exclusion of the associated land areas from consideration as sites for the disposal facility (see Section 2-400).
Factor - the individual data item or land attribute addressed by the intent or specific requirements of all or part of a siting regulation (see Section 2-300).
500-year Floodplain - the lowland and relatively flat areas adjoining inland and coastal waters including, at a minimum, that area subject to a 0.2 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year (modified from Executive Order 11988 - Floodplain Management).
(GIS) Geographical Information Systems - computer-based information handling programs that can store and manipulate both map-based information and associated tabular data, such as zip codes, population density, etc.
Karst - refers to a number of different geologic features found in areas of limestone or similar carbonate rocks, and includes sinkholes, caverns, caves, and open underground fissures.
LLRW - an acronym for low-level radioactive waste.
Liquefaction - the transformation of a granular material (usually sand) from a solid state to a fluid state due to an increase in pore-water pressure (Youd, T.L., 1973; Liquefaction, flow, and associated ground failure, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 688).
Local Exclusion Screening - the application of exclusion factors and subfactors on a local scale.
Local Preference Screening - the application of preference factors at a local scale.
Locally Protected Areas - areas set aside for the protection of natural and/or cultural resources by a town government or regional planning organization, and formally adopted in town or regional zoning maps or plans, planning documents, or other formal documents on or before the date of promulgation of these rules.
Mass wasting - downslope movements of rock or soil in response to gravity.
NRC - an acronym for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Outstanding Resource Water - waters of the state designated by the Water Resources Board as having exceptional natural, recreational, cultural or scenic values (10 V.S.A. 1422).
Performance Assessment - the process of analyzing the performance of a disposal site, usually using computer modeling. The assessment usually addresses water budget, waste container degradation and leaching, groundwater flow and transport, surface water flow and transport, food chain, and dosimetry (NUREG/CR-5453).
Preference Factors - those attributes of land areas that, on the basis of the siting regulations, would not specifically exclude land areas from consideration, but rather address certain preferences expressed in the siting regulations (see Section 2-400).
Preliminary Flood Hazards Study - a study of potential flood hazards using available data, site-specific probable maximum precipitation, and topographic maps.
Preliminary Investigation - a study designed to collect the minimum amount of data sufficient to provide a similar information base on all potential alternative sites and to allow for meaningful comparative analyses of potential alternative sites.
Publicly Available Data - Any information which is not proprietary and which can be obtained by the general public without special provision.
Public Water Supply - a water supply system with ten or more connections (10 V.S.A. 1391).
Regional - of or pertaining to specific regions of the State of Vermont, specifically those remaining under consideration after completion of Statewide Exclusion Screening.
Regional Exclusion Screening - screening of all land areas remaining after the Statewide Exclusion Screening, on the basis of additional exclusionary factors and subfactors.
Regional Preference Screening - screening of all land areas remaining after the Statewide Exclusion Screening and Regional Exclusion Screening, on the basis of selected preference factors and subfactors.
Site Characterization - the program of in-depth investigations and tasks undertaken to define the site characteristics affecting the isolation of LLRW, the long term stability of the disposal site, and the interactions between the disposal site and its surroundings.
Soil - all unconsolidated materials above the bedrock (Bates and Jackson, 1988; Glossary of Geology, American Geological Institute, Falls Church, VA).
Site Area - any area which lies within 2 kilometers of the boundary of the proposed disposal site.
Statewide - of or pertaining to the entire State of Vermont.
Statewide Exclusion Screening - screening of the entire State of Vermont, other than the Town of Vernon and volunteer sites, using selected exclusion factors. The remaining lands are identified as Potentially Suitable Areas (see Sec. 2-800.1).
Stream - a current of water which is above an elevation of 1,500 feet above sea level or which flows at any time at a rate of less than 1.5 cubic feet per second (10 V.S.A. 6001).
Subfactor - a further breakdown of a Factor based on the range of the size of land areas addressed by the Factor and appropriate mapping scales (see Section 2-300).
V.S.A. - an abbreviation for Vermont Statutes Annotated.
Vermont Yankee Site - a site for a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility on land presently owned by and contiguous to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation (10 V.S.A. 7001 (13)).
Verifiable - the methods and assumptions used in the model and the modeling process are valid for Vermont geological, hydrogeological, climatological, and other applicable conditions.
Wellhead Protection Area - the surface and subsurface area surrounding a water well or well field, supplying a public water system, through which contaminants are reasonably likely to move towards and reach such well or well field (Draft Vermont Wellhead Protection Program, Vermont Dept of Health, July 18,1990).
Wetland - those areas of the state that are inundated by surface or groundwater with a frequency sufficient to support significant vegetation or aquatic life that depends on saturated or seasonally saturated soil conditions for growth and reproduction. Such areas include, but are not limited to, marshes, swamps, sloughs, potholes, fens, river and lake overflows, mud-flats, bogs, and ponds, but excluding such areas as those that grow food or crops in connection with farming activities (10 V.S.A. 905(7-9)).
CATEGORY 1 - GROUNDWATER REGULATIONS
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(1) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(2)
he disposal site shall be free from groundwater discharge to the surface from any geological unit or zone which contains the disposal units or is hydrogeologically connected to the disposal units.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(7) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(8)
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(6) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(7)
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(16)
CATEGORY 2 - SURFACE WATER REGULATIONS
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(13); 10 V.S.A. Ch 47; 10 CFR 61.41; 40 CFR 141.15 - 16
The disposal site shall not be located in a wetland or a 500-year floodplain and shall be well drained and free of areas of flooding or frequent ponding.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(4) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(5)
The disposal site shall not be located in areas with upstream drainage areas of the size, geometry, and surface characteristics such that surface runoff could erode, expose, or inundate the waste disposal units.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(5) and 10 CFR 61.5(a)(6)
CATEGORY 3 - GEOLOGIC STABILITY REGULATIONS
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(9) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(10)
The disposal site shall not be located in areas where tectonic processes such as faulting, folding, seismic activity, or volcanism are likely to affect the ability of the disposal site to meet the performance objectives.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(8) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(9)
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(9)
CATEGORY 4 - PUBLIC HEALTH REGULATIONS
The disposal site shall not be located within a watershed of Class A waters or of a public water supply, within or adjacent to a Wellhead Protection Area, within or adjacent to Class I or Class II groundwaters, or where surface water quality standards could be reasonably expected to be violated by the disposal facility.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(12)10 CFR 61.41, 40 CFR 141.15-16
The disposal site shall be of sufficient size to allow the satisfaction of the performance objectives.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(15), 10 CFR 61.41 - 44
The disposal site selection process shall consider all potential transport mechanisms for radionuclides, including groundwater, surface water, biotic, and airborne. Disposal sites shall be preferred where exposure to humans will be minimized; where the environment will be minimally impacted; and where remediation of an unanticipated release will be enhanced.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7020(a), and 7021(b)(4)
The disposal site selection process shall consider issues related to the transportation of wastes to the facility, including, but not limited to, proximity to waste generators, roadway classification and safety records, and potential impacts on population in the event of transportation accidents.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(4)
CATEGORY 5 - DEMOGRAPHY AND LAND USE REGULATIONS
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(3)
The disposal site shall not be located in an area where projected population growth and future development are likely to affect the ability of the disposal site to meet the performance objectives.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(2) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(3)
The disposal site selection process shall consider proximity to sensitive land uses existing or proposed by the date of promulgation of these rules, including but not limited to schools, day care centers, and other facilities which primarily affect children.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(1)
The disposal site shall not be located where nearby facilities or activities or any existing radioactive materials could adversely impact the ability of the site to meet the performance objectives or significantly mask the environmental monitoring system.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(10) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(11)
The disposal site shall not be located in an area where the failure of a dam or impoundment could adversely affect the ability of the site to meet the performance objectives.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(14)
The site selection process shall consider the likely impacts on local governmental units, including, but not limited to, municipal services and emergency response services.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(3)
CATEGORY 6 - NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES REGULATIONS
The disposal site shall not be placed within federally excluded lands set aside for preservation and protection of natural resources. Federal lands specifically identified include, but are not limited to, National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and Management Areas, federally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness Areas, and National Recreation Areas.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(1)
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 2607, 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(1), 10 V.S.A. 6086(a)(9)(b), 10 V.S.A. Chapters 77, 151, 155, and 158.
The site selection process shall consider effects of siting on locally protected lands set aside for the preservation and protection of natural and cultural resources.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(1)
The disposal site shall not be located in an area that will adversely affect federally designated rare, threatened, or endangered species, or state designated endangered or threatened species, or critical fish and wildlife habitats.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 5401-5409, 10 V.S.A. 6086 (a)(8)(A), 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(2), Endangered Species Act of 1973 , Public Law 93-205, 87 Stat. 884.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(b)(1)
The disposal site shall not be located in areas having known natural resources which, if exploited, would result in the failure of the disposal site to meet the performance objectives.
REGULATORY BASIS: 10 V.S.A. 7021(a)(3) and 10 CFR 61.50(a)(4)
The Authority shall implement a process for identifying potential alternative sites in accordance with the rules under this chapter. The sequence and schedule for implementing various phases, subphases, and tracts shall be established by the Authority as part of the screening plan.
The Authority shall develop a Screening Plan to formalize the data sources and sequence of application to address each of the siting regulations and phases of the methodology. The Screening Plan shall be submitted to the Agency for review and comment prior to implementation. The Agency shall have twenty (20) days to review and respond to the Screening Plan. The Authority shall respond to Agency comments on the Screening Plan within 20 days of receipt of comments. The Screening Plan shall include the following elements:
The Authority shall establish the minimum width and minimum total acreage under consideration for the site, including the disposal units and the buffer zone, which shall be adequate to meet the capacity specifications of the Agency's design standards.
As part of the Screening Plan, the Authority shall, for each applicable regulation, develop a list of screening factors and subfactors to address the requirements and intent of the regulation.
As part of the Screening Plan, the Authority shall identify the classification of each screening factor or subfactor as exclusionary or preference. The classification of the factors and subfactors as exclusionary or preference shall in all cases be linked directly to the siting regulations, or any relevant statutes, codes, or regulations.
The Authority shall identify, for each factor and subfactor, the phase of the process where that factor or subfactor would most likely be applied.
The Authority shall apply exclusionary factors that are preferably mapped statewide to the entire state of Vermont, with the exception of the Town of Vernon and any volunteered sites, to identify Potentially Suitable Areas. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this Subphase 1a screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
The elements of the Screening Plan which address this subphase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
Within the land areas remaining after the Regional Exclusion Screening, the Authority shall apply appropriate regional preference factors and subfactors. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this subphase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
At the conclusion of the Regional Preference Screening described above, the remaining land areas shall be evaluated using available maps and data that are at more detailed scales. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this subphase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
Candidate Areas or Sites within the Town of Vernon shall be identified by the application of exclusionary factors. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this subphase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
Should lands be volunteered for consideration, the Authority shall evaluate the land areas proposed. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this subphase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
From within these Candidate Areas obtained from the completion of Phase 1 the Authority shall select Candidate Sites. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this phase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
From within the candidate sites obtained in Phase 2, the Authority shall select at least 3 Potential Alternative Sites which represent the best of the candidate sites as determined by the Authority. The elements of the Screening Plan which address this phase of the screening shall incorporate, at a minimum, the following requirements:
Under 10 V.S.A. 7002(a)(6)(B) and 7022(3), the Authority is required to select and submit to the Agency for certification at least three potential alternative sites, including one in the town of Vernon. The sites submitted shall represent the best of the candidate sites as determined by the Authority. The certification process shall take place in two phases.
As Phase 2 certification, the Authority shall complete preliminary investigations on all Phase 1 certified sites as provided for in 10 VSA 7011(4)(B), 7011(4)(G), 7011(6), and 7022(2) These investigations shall be scoped to fulfill the requirements listed in 3-201 of these rules.
12-005 Code Vt. R. 12-032-005-X