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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-01-19_HAI_ANOVA_Bkg-BTV_V-Cr6_20160418HALEY & ALDRICH, INC. 360 Quaker Street Northbridge, MA 01534 978-846-3463 MEMORANDUM 19 January 2016 File No. 42058-002-01 TO: Duke Energy Richard Baker FROM: Haley & Aldrich, Inc. Lisa JN Bradley, PhD, DABT SUBJECT: Background Evaluation for Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium As requested by the North Carolina (NC) Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), statistical analysis of the background groundwater data available for private wells using groundwater in the vicinity of the fourteen Duke Energy (Duke) facilities where ash basins are located. This evaluation focused on vanadium and hexavalent chromium. An outlier test was conducted, an ANOVA evaluation was conducted, data were grouped as indicated to be appropriate by the ANOVA, the difference in the means was evaluated and was used to group the data as high or low, and based on these groupings, background threshold values (BTVs) were calculated using a USEPA statistical software program, ProUCL (USEPA, 2013). Background Datasets The background groundwater data set consists of data provided by DEQ and by Duke. Three datasets were provided by the DEQ for private wells in the vicinity of Allen, Buck, and Marshall. Fourteen 14 datasets were provided by Duke for private wells located between 2 and 10 miles from each facility. Thus there are 17 datasets evaluated here. Outlier Testing Outlier testing was performed using three standard deviations of the combined datasets error estimate. Based on the use of the three standard deviations as the criteria, three outliers were identified: • Vanadium at 112 ug/L for Roxboro • Vanadium at 60.4 ug/L for Weatherspoon Hexavalent chromium at 73.5 ug/L for Weatherspoon www.haleyaldrich.com Background Evaluation —Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium Duke Energy 19 January 2016 Page 2 ANOVA The remaining data for vanadium and hexavalent chromium were used to conduct analysis of variance computations for the two constituents. The statistical computations revealed that there are significant differences in the mean concentrations amongst the 17 datasets for both the vanadium and the chromium VI data. Least Mean Squares To identify which mean concentrations were significantly higher than the remaining mean values another statistical method called "Least Significant Difference" (LSD) was used. A one -tailed test using a 5% probability value was used to compute the LSD for vanadium and for hexavalent chromium. The calculated LSD value for vanadium is 2.5138. The calculated LSD value for hexavalent chromium is 0.5906. The mean values for each of the plant sites for each constituent were organized in ascending order. The lowest mean value was subtracted from each of the remaining mean values to obtain the difference. This difference was compared with the computed LSD. If the difference was found to be larger than the LSD then it is concluded that there is a significant difference in the mean value for that plant site. Table 1 summarizes the results of the LSD testing for vanadium and Table 2 summarizes the results of the LSD testing for hexavalent chromium. Based on the statistical evaluation of the using ANOVA and LSD statistics, it is concluded that for vanadium and hexavalent chromium each can combine data in two groups, and a BTV can be developed for each combined dataset. Datasets Based on the LSD analysis, the following four background datasets have been identified. Vanadium Group A— Higher Background Concentrations • Allen • Allen-DEQ • Buck • Buck-DEQ • Marshall • Mayo • Riverbend Vanadium Group B — Lower Background Concentrations • Asheville • Belews Creek • Cape Fear i �1 I ■ 2TO Background Evaluation —Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium Duke Energy 19 January 2016 Page 3 • Cliffside • Dan River • Lee • Marshall-DEQ • Roxboro • Sutton • Weatherspoon Hexavalent Chromium Group A — Higher Background Concentrations • Allen • Allen-DEQ • Buck • Buck-DEQ • Marshall • Marshall-DEQ • Mayo Hexavalent Chromium Group B — Lower Background Concentrations • Asheville • Belews Creek • Cape Fear • Cliffside • Dan River • Lee • Riverbend • Roxboro • Sutton • Weatherspoon BTV Calculations ProUCL (USEPA, 2013) was used to calculate BTVs for each of the four datasets. The results are shown on Table 3. The BTVs are: • Vanadium Group A — Higher Background Concentrations — BTV = 42 ug/L • Vanadium Group B — Lower Background Concentrations — BTV = 5.8 ug/L • Hexavalent Chromium Group A — Higher Background Concentrations — BTV = 7.4 ug/L • Hexavalent Chromium Group B — Lower Background Concentrations — BTV = 3 ug/L i �1 I ■ 2TO Background Evaluation —Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium Duke Energy 19 January 2016 Page 4 These values can be used to further our understanding of the private well results collected by DEQ under the Coal Ash Management Act (CAMA), and help inform decision -making for the Duke facilities. Reference USEPA. 2013a. Statistical Software ProUCL 5.0.00 for Environmental Applications for Data Sets with and without Nondetect Observations. Software: http://www2.epa.gov/land-research/proucl-software, and User's Guide: http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/proucl v5.0 user.pdf iF,,�I I =� ,�1 I ■ 2TO Background Evaluation —Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium Duke Energy 19 January 2016 Page 5 Table 1 - Summary of the LSD testing results for the mean values for vanadium Number of Results Mean Difference in Means Significance (LSD = 2.5138) Asheville 13 0.6261 Dan River 8 0.7038 0.0777 Sutton 13 0.8549 0.2288 Lee 11 0.9364 0.3103 Weatherspoon 1 1 Belews Creek 11 1.377 0.7509 Marshall-DEQ 10 1.7 1.0739 Roxboro 25 1.7204 1.0943 Cliffside 9 1.6347 1.0086 Cape Fear 18 1.697 1.0709 Riverbend 11 2.8881 2.262 ** Mayo 14 3.1889 2.5628 Marshall 29 3.9021 3.276 Buck 17 5.4053 4.7792 Allen-DEQ 7 6.0571 5.431 Allen 16 7.2512 6.6251 Buck-DEQ 7 7.9286 7.3025 * Denotes that there significant differences in the means with Ashville mean concentration. ** Riverbend mean difference is only slightly below the LSD, so was grouped with those results with a significant difference. LSD = Least Significant Difference Background Evaluation —Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium Duke Energy 19 January 2016 Page 6 Table 2 - Summary of the LSD testing results for the mean values for hexavalent chromium Number of Results Mean Difference in Means Significance (LSD = 0.5906) Weatherspoon 1 0.03 Only one point Sutton 13 0.03 Lee 10 0.0515 0.0215 Asheville 7 0.0876 0.0576 Cape Fear 18 0.14472 0.11472 Dan River 3 0.2227 0.1927 Cliffside 1 0.27 0.24 Riverbend 5 0.282 0.252 Roxboro 16 0.3917 0.3617 Belews Creek 6 0.56683 0.53683 Marshall 11 0.6481 0.6181 Mayo 13 0.683 0.653 Marshall-DEQ 10 0.721 0.691 Buck 17 0.7718 0.7418 Buck-DEQ 7 0.7943 0.7643 Allen-DEQ 7 1.1571 1.1271 Allen 6 1.5323 1.5023 * Denotes that there significant differences in the means with Sutton mean concentration LSD = Least Significant Difference i �1 I ■ 2TO Background Evaluation —Vanadium and Hexavalent Chromium Duke Energy 19 January 2016 Page 7 TABLE 3 BACKGROUND THRESHOLD VALUES FOR VANADIUM AND HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM Page 1 of 1 Vanadium Hexavalent Chromium Range of Range of Statistical Frequency of Detected Mean Statistical Frequency of Detected Mean Grouping Frequency of Detection Concentrations Detect Grouping Frequency of Detection Concentrations Detect (a, d) Detection Percent (ug/L) (ug/L) Background Threshold Value (BTV) (b) (ug/L) (a, d) Detection Percent (ug/L) (ug/L) Background Threshold Value (BTV) (b) (ug/L) Group A 79 / 101 78% 0.318 - 23.7 6.072 42 Gamma 95% WH KM Gamma USL Group A 51 / 71 72% 0.039 - 5.8 0.992 7.434 Gamma 95% WH KM Gamma USL Group B 45 / 119 38% 0.346 - 13.1 2.302 5.776 Lognormal 95% UTL (c) Group B 32 / 80 40% 0.033 - 3 0.292 3 Nonparametric 95% USL Notes: BTV - Background Threshold Value. KM - Kaplan -Meier. DEQ- Department of Environmental Quality. USL- Upper Simultaneous Limit. NC - North Carolina. UTL - Upper Tolerance Limit. ug/L - micrograms/liter. W H - Wilson H ilferty. (a) - Based on the statistical evaluation of the 17 background data sets (14 data sets from Duke, one for each plant; and 3 from DEC, for Allen, Buck and Marshll) data for vanadium and hexavalent chromium were each divided into two groups following the conclusion of statistical significance between means. Statistically significant difference = Group A (higher background concentrations), no statistically significant difference = Group B (lower background concentration). (b) - BTV values calculated using ProUCL v. 5.0.00 (USEPA, 2013). (c) - For constituents with lognormal distributions, the 95% UTL was selected as the BTV as the USL for lognormal distributions is very unstable (d) - Vanadium Group A: Vanadium Group B: Hexavalent Chromium Group A: Hexavalent Chromium Group B: Allen DEQ Asheville Allen DEQ Asheville Allen Belews Creek Allen Belews Creek Buck Cape Fear Buck Cape Fear Buck DEQ Cliffside Buck DEQ Cliffside Marshall Dan River Marshall Dan River Mayo Lee Marshall DEQ Lee River Bend Marshall DEQ Mayo Riverbend Roxboro Roxboro Sutton Sutton Weatherspoon Weatherspoon Haley & Aldrich, Inc. 1/19/2016 2016-0119-Vanadium Hex Chrome BTVs.xlsx