range cleanup in Colorado

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Here are three articles from the June 2004 Fielding Environmental
Solutions about cooperation between the Army and the State of Colorado.

* Wide-Area Assessment of UXO Sites Using an Airborne Multi-Sensor
Approach   
* Unexploded Ordnance Fire Management Protocols 
* Optimized Approach for a Concurrent Conventional Munitions And RCWM  

Fielding Environmental Solutions is a publication of the Army
Environmental Cetner. It may be contacted at
<fielding_environmental_solutions@aeclist.apgea.army.mil> or (when it's
working) at http://www.aec.army.mil/usaec/technology/fes00.html. 

* Wide-Area Assessment of UXO Sites Using an Airborne Multi-Sensor Approach

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District in partnership with the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are currently
executing UXO response activities at the Former Lowry Bombing and
Gunnery Range (FLBGR), Colorado. One component of these efforts is
wide-area assessment (WAA) of the site using airborne remote sensing
technologies. The WAA objective is to reduce the footprint of the
59,000-acre site to only those areas with known ordnance contamination.
The WAA technology was designed to detect and map areas of large
concentrations of UXO such as bombing targets.

Wide-area Assessment characterization techniques include synthetic
aperture radar (SAR) for detection of surface and shallow subsurface
targets, hyperspectral imagery (HSI) for vegetation-related false alarm
mitigation, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) for micro-topography
analysis, feature identification and data registration, high-resolution
color orthophotography for definition of ordnance related surface
features and GIS technology for data management, visualization, and web
data access.

Wide-area Assessments in Colorado excluded 10,000 acres previously
identified as areas of concern and identified 14 areas of interest,
encompassing 41 acres.  After conducting Wide-area Assessments, only
0.07% of the entire land surveyed requires field verification.  The
remaining 41,959 acres are presumptively considered areas of minimal concern.

For more information contact the Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha
District, (402) 221-7709. 

* UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE FIRE MANAGEMENT PROTOCOLS

Wildland firefighting and controlled burns on munitions-contaminated
land are emerging issues in the munitions response field. Management of
fires on these properties typically requires a great deal of interagency
coordination and cross training between firefighters and UXO personnel. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District (Corps), in partnership
with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)
and U.S. Forest Service (USFS), are performing munitions response
activities at Camp Hale, Colorado, under the Formerly Used Defense Site
(FUDS) program. In 2002, the State of Colorado experienced exceptionally
dry conditions, resulting in extreme fire danger across the state. A
small lightning fire within the Camp Hale boundaries, adjacent to a
known munitions-contaminated area, escalated the need for fire response
protocols to safely address fires within potential
munitions-contaminated areas. 

UXO fire hazard maps were established for each area of the site based on
the currently-known potential for munitions hazards and each area was
classified either "red," "orange," "yellow," or "green", based on
anticipated munitions hazards.  Munitions safety training was provided
to alert firefighters to the potential UXO hazards.

For more information contact the Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha
District, (402) 221-7709. 

* OPTIMIZED APPROACH FOR A CONCURRENT CONVENTIONAL MUNITIONS AND RCWM
RESPONSE ACTION

During conventional munitions response activities at the Jeep/Demolition
Range (J/D Range) at the Former Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range (FLBGR),
many inert Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel (RCWM) training aids were
recovered.  Remnants from Chemical Agent Identification Sets (CAIS) were
also found. The CAIS remnants elevated concerns of finding live agent;
therefore, the J/D Range transitioned to an RCWM site.

RCWM response operations are very costly and require a much longer
schedule than conventional munitions response. Rapid residential
development near the J/D Range has accelerated and it was determined
that an innovative approach to the site response was appropriate, in
order to effectively manage and reduce the hazards associated with the
simultaneous presence of CAIS and conventional munitions. 

By incorporating geophysical surveys and geophysical discrimination into
the response process, nearly 70 acres have been RCWM-cleared.  The
very-costly and time-consuming RCWM operations have been focused toward
specific locations, as opposed to the entire grid area. Tens of millions
of dollars have been saved due to this effort.

For more information contact the Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha
District, (402) 221-7709. 


-- 


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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