[CPEO-MEF] Air Force postpones plume cleanup at MMR

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Air Force postpones plume cleanup

By AMANDA LEHMERT
Cape Cod Times (MA)
February 16, 2005

CAMP EDWARDS - The Air Force will hold off cleaning up a toxic plume of
explosives flowing through the aquifer under Camp Edwards until the Army
finishes mapping several nearby plumes.

The Air Force plume, dubbed Chemical Spill 19, contains Royal Demolition
Explosives, or RDX, in concentrations as high as 13 parts per billion,
more than six times the safe drinking water standard. 

The plume and its source, discovered in 1990, was one of the first
contamination sites to be identified in the 2,200-acre former artillery
impact area on the Upper Cape base.

The discovery of Chemical Spill 19, or CS-19, prompted the Environmental
Protection Agency in 1997 to force the Army to investigate other
contamination caused from decades of National Guard firing on the
training lands, said Jim Murphy, spokesman for EPA Region One. 

The study was the first in the nation of the interior of a military
artillery impact area.

But as the investigation of the northern reaches of the base has
progressed, plumes discovered near the base boundaries, which would be
more likely to threaten local drinking water supplies with
contamination, have taken priority over toxic plumes farther away from
base borders, Army and EPA officials said.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/airforce16.htm

-- 


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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