Fermilab

Increased monitoring began on Kress Creek following detection of low levels of tritium in Indian Creek in November 2005. The levels of tritium measured in the Fermilab cooling ponds and in Indian Creek are well below federal water standards for tritium. Fermilab continues to monitor the ponds and creeks on its site and take steps to keep the levels of tritium as low as reasonably achievable.

State of Illinois agencies also have taken water samples from Indian Creek in the past and confirmed the accuracy of Fermilab's measurement system.

Fermilab will continue to display Kress Creek monitoring results on this page. A second page provides more information, and we have posted an aerial view of Kress Creek as well.

About the graph: A solid dot appears on every day in which a sample has been taken and analyzed. For samples in which a level of tritium above the limit of detection has been measured, the uncertainty of the measurement is indicated by an error bar attached to the solid dot. Samples with no detectable level of tritium are represented by a solid dot without error bar at the bottom of the graph.

Footnote: A picocurie is the unit used to specify how many tritium particles in a water sample decay into helium particles each second. Standard tests can detect levels of tritium in water that are larger than about 1 picocurie per milliliter. The Department of Energy surface water standards specify a limit of 1900 picocuries per milliliter.