Evaluation of the Rulison drilling effluent pond as trout habitat

The Rulison Site is located in Section 25, township 7 South, Range 95 West, Garfield County, Colorado. The site is approximately 19 kilometers (km) (12 miles [mi]) southwest of Rifle Colorado, and approximately 65 km (40 mi) northeast of Grand Junction, Colorado. Project Ruhson was an experiment conducted jointly by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and Austral Oil Company to test the feasibility of using a nuclear device to increase natural gas production in low permeability geological formations. The experiment was conducted on September 10, 1969, and consisted of detonating a 43-kiloton nuclear device at a depth of 2,568 meters (m) (8,426 feet [ft]) below the ground surface (DOE, 1994). The Rulison Drilling Effluent Pond (called `the pond`) is an engineered structure covering approximately 0.2 hectare (0.5 acre), which was excavated and used to store drilling fluids during drilling of the device emplacement well. The drilling fluids consisted of bentonitic drilling mud with additives such as diesel fuel and chrome lignosulfonate. Most of the drilling muds were removed from the pond when the site was decommissioned in 1976, and the pond was subsequently stocked with rainbow trout by the land owner and used as a fishing pond. In 1994 and 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) conducted sampling of the pond to evaluate residual contamination from the drilling fluids. Based on the results of this sampling, the DOE conducted a voluntary cleanup action in order to reduce the levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons and chromium in pond sediments. The cleanup was conducted between August and mid-November of 1995. At the end of cleanup activities, the pond was lined with a clay geofabric and left dry. The geofabric was covered with sod to protect it. The pond has since been refilled by snowmelt and inflow from a spring. Prior to remediation, the pond apparently had sufficient water quality and food resources to support stocked rainbow trout. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the present ecological status of the pond and to determine if post-remediation water quality and food resources are adequate to support stocked rainbow trout. Sampling of the pond was conducted by IT Corporation (IT) on September 10, 1996