2006 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 22 Dec 2006 21:19:26 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] RE: CPEO-MEF] Emerging contaminants at Defense installations
 
From: Bill McClenney <WMcClenney@environcorp.com>


There are no PRGs for any contaminants in groundwater, so there is not one for perchlorate. If I am wrong, please feel free to correct me. As yet we have no national MCL for perchlorate, and I seem to remember seeing here the announcement of Massachusetts' MCL a few months ago. California may be on its heels with a Public Health Goal (PHG), a preliminary step on the way to a state issued MCL.


William F. McClenney PG REA | Senior Manager | ENVIRON International Corporation

[He's right. I assume that the researchers used the term PRG to refer to whatever standard DOD is using for each contaminant. - LS]

Lenny Siegel wrote:
As part of the Defense Department's effort to understand its emerging contaminants problem, the armed services conducted an occurrence analysis of existing data, presented by Philip Hunter of the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence at the Partners in Environmental Technology Symposium late last November. Hunter and his counterparts at the Army and Navy reviewed groundwater and soil sampling data from 440 installations.

The most striking result was that trichloroethylene (TCE) has been found in groundwater at 383, or 87% of those facilities. It was found above the preliminary remediation goal (PRG) at 302 of those bases. Another volatile solvent, tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was found above its PRG at 252 of the 440 installations. Napthalene, a key component of jet fuel, was found above its PRG at 212 bases.

In some ways, the researchers' methodology exaggerates the military's pollution problems. They reported sampling hits for substances that often occur naturally, such as manganese and arsenic. Furthermore, the high percentage of individual monitoring wells reporting TCE hits resulted in part from the fact that a vast number of wells were sunk to delineate known TCE plumes. On the other hand it's not surprising that only 18 installations reporting finding perchlorate, above PRGs, in groundwater. Historically, DOD facilities have rarely gone out looking for perchlorate contamination.

Hunter's slides from the Symposium may be viewed at
http://www.serdp-estcp.org/Symposium/Technical/Wednesday-am.cfm
Just scroll down to Session 2B.


Lenny




--


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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