by Lee H. Saunders
$5 million project to clean up environmental contamination
at a former scrap yard at Camp Pendleton and restore the site to a wetland
is nearing completion. A clean up team composed of Southwest Division Naval
Facilities Engineering Command, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, federal
and state regulators, and civilian contracted personnel is progressing toward
a scheduled 1996 completion date.
OHM Remediation Services of San Diego, the
remedial action contractor performing the clean up, started cleanup operations
in May 1996. Utilizing a clean up technology called soil stabilization,
the cleanup team is treating 30,000 tons of contaminated soil. The contaminants
are pesticides, heavy metals, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PAHs
(polyaromatic hydrocarbons).
"Soil stabilization binds contaminants
to soil particles and eliminates their mobility and potential impact to
groundwater," said Jerry Dunaway, Southwest Division remedial project
manager for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, said.
The cleanup will protect the Santa Margarita
groundwater basin tributary that provides the primary source of water for
the base.
"The contaminated soil would pose a risk
to human health if the contamination had gotten into the water production
wells downstream of the site which serve as a water supply for the base,"
Dunaway said.
Camp Pendleton is listed on the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is a list of
the country's most serious hazardous sites identified for possible remedial
response.
"Former operations at the scrap yard involved
on-site storage, processing, and disposal of hazardous materials including
battery electrolyte fluid, transformer dielectric fluid, and other hazardous
waste releases resulting from a drum storage operation," Dunaway said.
Besides treating the contaminated soil, the
soil stabilization technology is saving taxpayers' money by eliminating
costly off-base disposal of the treated soil. The treated soil will be used
in the foundation layer of an engineering cap that will encase a landfill
site on the base and save taxpayers about $4 million dollars.
Once the remediation is complete, restoration
activities will work to restore the scrap yard site to a wetland status.
Though reestablishment of wetlands has proved difficult, it is hoped that
grading and drainage improvements throughout the site will aid and enhance
its wetland characteristics. The restoration will seek to nurture the growth
of native plant species that support endangered birds found in the area.
"Restricting activities at the site will
allow it to revert back to its natural ecology," Dunaway said.
Southwest Division, Naval Facilities Engineering
Command, San Diego, commanded by Capt. Mike Johnson, Civil Engineer Corps,
U. S. Navy, manages a fiscal year 1996 environmental cleanup budget of over
$200 million for over 600 installation sites at 38 Navy and Marine Corps
bases in Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California.
