Audit Report: OAS-M-07-06

The Hanford Environmental Information System (HEIS) database is the official
repository of data from soil, biota, atmospheric, miscellaneous material, surface water
and groundwater samples at the Hanford Site. The HEIS is required by the Tri-Party
Agreement, which is a legally binding agreement among the Department of Energy
(Department), Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The majority of the data in HEIS is associated with samples
collected in support of the cleanup requirements, groundwater monitoring, environmental
impact statements, waste site remediation and characterization, and biological/ecologica1
monitoring. In particular, data contained in HEIS is obtained from samples taken to
characterize the level of contamination at a site before and during cleanup, as well as
san~plesta ken to monitor the site at the completion of cleanup.
As the official repository for environmental samples at the Hanford Site, it is important that HEIS contain complete data, especially regarding the number and locations sample results in terms of detected contamination levels. Sample data
contained in HEIS is used to assist in making cleanup decisions. Given its importance to Hanford's cleanup effort, the objective of this audit was to
determine whether HEIS contains complete environmental sampling data.