w119º 36’ 36" n46º 34’ 12"
These look to me like typical sewage treatment ponds. Someone elsewhere guesses that since they are near Hanford, WA, the pools contain ‘highly radioactive water’. The person who posted the image agrees.
I’m skeptical. First, I don’t think that radioactive water would be stored uncovered. Second, even though they’re in the middle of nowhere, they are surrounded by some sort of human activity and there is agriculture going on within about a dozen miles. Third, the ponds look like sewage ponds. They appear to have ‘fountains’ (the white spots look like the heads) used to stir things up. The nearby facilities must have some human waste comeing out of them, and it needs to go somewhere.
Maybe they really are ponds of radioactive water. I’m prepared to concede I’m wrong. But I’d like to know. Some sort of documentation saying ‘These ponds, at these coordinates, [does this]; and here are photos of them doing it’ would be most helpful.
My first guess would be some kind of mining operation.
Zoom out and look where it is.
It is in the exact centre of the Hanford national park, the site of the Manhattan project’s plutonium refinement plants. The ponds are right next to the “W” in 200 West here. Area 200 held the chemical extraction facilities - it was here that the plutonium was extracted. These are some of the most contaminated lands in the US. If you look around the area you can see the area 200 buildings to the lower left of the ponds. Around them you can see disposal pits being filled, and clearly there are many other pits already filled and covered. The only people working here are doing the cleanup, the facilities themselves were decommissioned and abandoned years ago.
The ponds are probably seriously contaminated. Whether radioactive, or just really nasty chemicals, or both, hard to say. The entire area is not exactly open to public access.
The very north of 200 West Area, Hanford Site.
Here it says all the industrial /nuclear waste treatment was already built … eg running in 2004.
Google earth historical imagery shows the plant in question appearing between late 2011.
It looks like a sewerage treatment plant, with the thingy in the middle of each pond to stir and aerate the water…
So go to
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/nwp/permitting/WWD/
ST-0045514 200 West Area Evaporative Sewage Lagoon
The 200 West Area Evaporative Sewage Lagoon is a new domestic wastewater treatment facility located northeast of the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site. The facility consists of double-lined evaporative lagoons and is designed to have no liquid discharge to the ground. The system will provide domestic wastewater treatment for the 200 West and 600 Areas, as well as provide treatment for domestic wastewater hauled from the 200 East Area and other locations within the Hanford Site. Initially, the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) will only truck wastewater to the facility. As existing on-site systems fail and new infrastructure is needed, USDOE may consider constructing a collection system within the 200 West and 600 Areas. USDOE constructed the 200 West Area Evaporative Sewage Lagoon, in part, to replace the existing 100-N Sewage Lagoon (State Waste Discharge Permit ST0004507) which is nearing the end of its service life. In addition, the majority of future Hanford Site cleanup activities will be centered around the 200 Area. The location of this new wastewater treatment facility will be centrally located to serve this growing population of workers.
Thats a match … to the north east of the 200 West site …
Thanks, Isilder! That’s exactly what I was looking for.
Water is a VERY good insulator of radioactivity. Supposedly, you could swim in the ‘spent fuel containment’ tank at a nuclear power plant with no ill effect (not even noticeable increase in your risk of cancer).
