Nye County’s John Klenke collects water samples from an Amargosa Valley location.
Nye County’s John Klenke collects water samples from an Amargosa Valley location.

LAS VEGAS – The EM Nevada Program has awarded a two-year grant extension to an intergovernmental groundwater testing program carried out by Nye County that works to ensure the safety of publicly accessible water.

The Tritium Sampling and Monitoring Program, an EM grant-funded initiative, supports annual independent sampling for tritium at locations near the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Tritium is the primary contaminant of concern, because it is highly mobile in groundwater and can serve as an indicator of contaminant migration from nuclear testing.

“We are proud of our collaborative partnership with Nye County, which is helping to ensure the continued safety of publicly accessible water near the Nevada National Security Site,” said Rob Boehlecke, EM Nevada Program manager. “The Tritium Sampling and Monitoring Program is a valuable initiative that continues to show no detectible migration of tritium at sampling locations in Nye County." 

Private wells, natural springs, and local facilities make up the 20 tritium sampling and monitoring locations the Tritium Sampling and Monitoring Program sampled in 2019. For more information, visit the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project.
Private wells, natural springs, and local facilities make up the 20 tritium sampling and monitoring locations the Tritium Sampling and Monitoring Program sampled in 2019. For more information, visit the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project.

The collaborative sampling and monitoring initiative was initiated in 2015 when EM issued a five-year, $1.27 million grant to Nye County to monitor tritium in wells near the NNSS. The grant also supports the county’s involvement in technical reviews of the historical nuclear underground test area groundwater activities.

Geoscientists under the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office have sampled and monitored 50 separate locations since the program began, including 42 wells and eight springs. Of these sites, 10 are sampled every year, while the other 10 locations rotate annually. The 2019 sampling results of 17 wells and three springs found no detectible levels of tritium in the sampled locations.

As the environmental program services contractor for the EM Nevada Program, Navarro Research and Engineering has supported Nye County in coordinating the administration of the Tritium Sampling and Monitoring Program. Other supporting partners include the State of Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Desert Research Institute, and the Nevada Site Specific Advisory Board.