[CPEO-MEF] EPA to discuss Arctic Surplus cleanup

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Alaska
FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER
EPA to discuss Arctic Surplus cleanup
By MARMIAN L. GRIMES, Staff Writer
June 17, 2003 - 3:09:26 AM AKST

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday will host a public
meeting on this summer's cleanup efforts at the Arctic Surplus Superfund
site.
The cleanup will be the first action at the site, located off Badger
Road near McPeak's, since the early 1990s, according to Neil Thompson,
the EPA's project manager for the site.

Starting in 1989 and through about 1992, the EPA removed about 3,000
drums from the privately owned junkyard, Thompson said. About 1,700 of
the drums were full of various contaminants.

"What remained behind was the contaminated soil," he said.

Most of the material on the site was surplus purchased by the junkyard
operator from the military, Thompson added.

A 1995 document determined that the contaminated soil needed to be
cleaned up, he said. The delay in cleanup has been due mostly to lack of
funding.

"The Department of Defense has stepped up finally," he said. "It took a
little bit of arm-twisting but it finally happened."

Thompson said military crews have been working through the winter
seeking out unexploded ordnance on the property. This summer, cleanup
crews will be excavating about 12 acres of soil, he said, digging down
at least 6 inches.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~1460396,00.html

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