Surface Water
The only surface water sample collected in a crater was highly contaminated with
most of the metals. Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Zn were detected at concentrations much
higher than the CCME criteria. The high aluminum value suggests that a low-order
detonation of an item containing tritonal took place in that crater. The elements of
concern in this crater are almost identical to the one encountered in the small puddle
in Alpha Range. The same conclusion can be drawn here; the metal concentrations
were very high, but considering the limited amount of water in the crater, this
represents a small impact to the range.
Energetic Materials
All of the soil samples collected at the Shaver River Range were analysed for
energetic materials. Results can be found in Table VIII A and B. No explosives were
found in the three background samples S-SR-BG1, 2 and 3. No propellant residues
were found in any circular samples except for 1,3,5-TNB at concentrations of 0.23 to
1.66 ppm in 22 out of 32 soil samples from the circular sampling strategy. Propellant
residues were found in the surface water sample collected in the crater. NG
concentration was 2 ppb while 1,3-DNB, 2,6-DNT and 2,4-DNT were respectively
595, 377 and 6,486 ppb. No 1,3,5-TNB was found in this sample. In the soil samples
collected in the crater, only 1,3,5-TNB was detected at 350 ppb.
TNT was found in all soil samples collected in Shaver River Range. The TNT
concentrations for the soil samples collected in a circular pattern around the target
were much higher than for the other soil samples collected at this site. Concentrations
above 50 ppm were found in samples from the A, B, and C rings, with the highest
concentration at 165 ppm in A-1 (compared to 332 ppm in C11 during Phase I). Here
again, much lower concentrations of TNT-related compounds, such as 2,4-DNT, 2,6-
DNT, TNB, 2-ADNT, and 4-ADNT, were found in the samples. In two samples, B1
and C4, from the target area, very low concentrations of RDX and HMX were found,
350 ppb for RDX in B1, 6000 ppb for RDX and 1470 ppb for HMX in C4. Neither
RDX nor HMX were detected in the samples that contained the highest
concentrations of TNT. Thus the source of these small amounts of RDX found on the
Shaver River Range appears to be different from the source of the TNT. The source
of TNT at this range is thought to be the tritonal used as the high explosive in Air
Force bombs. TNT was found at 79.38 ppm in the soil collected in the crater, while
TNT was found at 13.10 ppm in the water collected in the same crater. Strangely,
RDX was found at 2 ppm in the surface water sample collected in the crater, this is
almost maximum RDX water solubility and may indicate that a blow-in-place
operations using C-4 took place and generated that crater. Tetryl was not detected in
any samples. Compared to results obtained during Phase I, the situation is very
similar with small differences such as no tetryl and a higher TNT maximum
concentration during Phase I. In general, in Shaver River Range, the concentrations of
explosives (mainly TNT) were much higher than in the other ranges. Most of the
TNT explosives-related compounds were found in almost all the samples except for
RDX and HMX that were found at very low concentrations. TNT was the most
important contaminant.
17
DRDC Valcartier TR 2004-204
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