Camp Edwards Update

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

October 3, 1997 CAPE COD TIMES 

Another impact-area well shows link to TNT
 EPA begins to define effect of explosives on Upper Cape
 aquifer

 By ANNE BRENNAN
 STAFF WRITER
 [Image] BOURNE - Explosives found in ground water under
 the Upper Cape military reservation are opening a new
 chapter in the long history of pollution on the base.
 [Image] Engineers drilling wells in and around the Camp
 Edwards artillery impact area Wednesday found yet
 another spot in the aquifer contaminated with chemicals
 associated with explosives.
 [Image] It is the fourth well punched into the
 artillery range that contained water tainted by
 explosives or breakdown products of explosives. Test
 results from the four wells are preliminary and will be
 backed up by further testing over the next few weeks,
 said Michael Dette, the Army Deputy at the Joint
 Program Office on the base.
 [Image] It has been known for a decade that solvents,
 fuels and other chemicals spilled or disposed of on the
 base have contaminated some 66 billion gallons of water
 in the aquifer, prompting the massive federal cleanup
 now under way. That dumping was done over the years, at
 a time when the environmental effects were not known.
 [Image] But the question of whether routine training
 and gunnery practice might be polluting came late to
 the party.
 [Image] And while the size and location of the 11 known
 solvent and fuel plumes of contamination flowing from
 the base is pretty well established, the picture of
 pollution under the impact area is just beginning to
 come into focus.
 [Image] The wells were drilled as part of a study to
 determine whether routine Army National Guard training
 at Camp Edwards on the Massachusetts Military
 Reservation is threatening the Upper Cape's drinking
 water and public health. About 25 of 52 wells for the
 study have been drilled so far.
 [Image] The four areas where explosives and
 explosive-associated chemicals were found are the first
 in a dot-to-dot drawing that will be filled in as more
 wells are tested, said Michael Jazinski of the U.S.
 Environmental Protection Agency.
 [Image] Last week a 50-foot-deep sample of the aquifer
 was found to contain four chemicals associated with TNT
 at the site of Monitoring Well 15 just to the northeast
 of Monitoring Well 21.
 [Image] TNT was used in artillery and mortar shells
 fired at the base for decades.
 [Image] And last month a well at the center of the
 artillery impact area, Monitoring Well 1, was found to
 contain explosives continuously from the top of the
 aquifer to about 85 feet.
 [Image] Jazinski said preliminary tests also revealed a
 trace amount of nitrobenzene and nitrotoluene in water
 from a fourth well, Monitor Well 18, on the Sandwich
 side of the base near Greenway Road.
 [Image] The latest find, still preliminary, was at
 Monitoring Well 21, just beyond the southwestern edge
 of the impact area. It revealed the presence of 4
 nitrotoluene and 3 nitrotoluene. Both are breakdown
 products of the explosive trinitrotoluene, or TNT,
 Jazinski said. The exact concentration of the chemicals
 was not available but it was less than 1.5 parts per
 billion, he said.
 [Image] The federal health advisory for TNT warns
 against consuming more than 2 parts per billion in two
 liters of water daily over 70 years.
 [Image] Thomas Cambareri, a hydrogeologist and water
 resources coordinator for the Cape Cod Commission, is
 worried the newly-found contamination will dash any
 hopes that the vast undeveloped areas of the
 22,000-acre base will provide future water supplies to
 the Upper Cape.
 [Image] Well 21 is due east of long-range-water-supply
 Well 2, one of 10 drilled two years ago in an effort to
 identify future water sources.
 [Image] Last winter a sample from Well 2 taken in July
 1996 was found to contained trace amounts of TNT.
 Another water sample taken from Well 2 last spring
 showed no traces of the explosive.
 [Image] "Well 21 is upgradient of well number two,"
 Cambareri said. "That might explain that hit of TNT we
 had earlier this year."
 [Image] Due east and a little to the south of both
 wells is a former demolition pit that was used to train
 soldiers how to blow up bridges and other objects.
 Preliminary tests on soil there also revealed the
 presence of explosives.
 [Image] Cambareri is hopeful the study will be able to
 determine if the demolition pit and the contamination
 are related.
 [Image] In the meantime, at the request of the EPA,
 private wells in the Schooner Pass condominium complex
 in Bourne will be tested, as will a Bourne Water
 District monitor well that sits between the impact area
 and the public water wells in the town forest section
 of Monument Beach.
Lenny Siegel
Director, SFSU CAREER/PRO (and Pacific Studies Center)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@igc.org