Re: [CPEO-MEF] Superfund cleanup goes on and on

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

As most of our readers know, Federal Sites, such as Dahlgren and
Quantico, are on the "Superfund" National Priorities List, so they are
regulated by U.S. EPA as well as the state of Virginia under the
Superfund law, but they are funded in the Navy budget. Many of us
believe that the Navy environmental restoration budget is insufficient,
too, but it is not at all linked to the Superfund taxes.

Lenny



CPEO Moderator wrote:
> 
> Virginia
> THE FREE LANCE-STAR
> Superfund cleanup goes on and on
> It's been a long haul to clean up area Superfund sites, and the job's
> far from finished.
> By Rusty Dennen
> Date published: 11/9/2003
> 
> Environmental work at Dahlgren, Quantico bases far from finished
> 
> When Ann Swope began work as an environmental scientist 22 years ago at
> Dahlgren, the Navy base was just getting started cleaning up a series of
> polluted Superfund sites.
> 
> Swope will have to work another eight years to see the end of the
> effort, which is supposed to wrap up in 2011.
> 
> "We had just finished the initial look when I got here," Swope said in a
> recent interview and tour of several cleanup projects at the 4,300-acre
> installation on the Potomac River in King George County.
> 
> Superfund, enacted by Congress in 1980 to identify and clean up the
> nation's most polluted sites, is now 23 years old and still plodding
> along at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, and four
> other sites in the region--Quantico Marine Base, L.A. Clarke & Son in
> Spotsylvania County, Culpeper Wood Preservers Inc. in Culpeper County
> and Arrowhead Associates in Westmoreland County.
> 
> For reasons of funding, logistics and the time it takes for these
> projects to wend their way through the federal bureaucracy and the
> cleanup process, it will be years before all of them are done.
> 
> With less federal money in the pipeline for these cleanups, however,
> fewer of them will be completed on schedule.
> 
> Even after the work is finished, all will require long-term monitoring
> for residual effects such as groundwater contamination.
> 
> Federal facilities such as Dahlgren and Quantico fall under jurisdiction
> of the Department of Defense.
> 
> At Dahlgren, dozens of polluted sites have been identified over the
> years. The list eventually grew to 75 sites--11 were found to be of
> sufficient concern to place them at the top of a priority list and all
> but one of those has been restored. Overall, 43 projects have been
> finished. Work is ongoing at six locations.
> 
> "Each year we update our site-management plan," Swope said. Swope and
> Billy Weedon, the base environmental-restoration coordinator, oversee
> the projects and coordinate with the Navy, Environmental Protection
> Agency, contractors, and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
> 
> This article can be viewed at:
> http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2003/112003/11092003/1155657
> 


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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