[CPEO-MEF] VOCs: Camp Lejeune (NC) cleanup

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Nearly 30 years after first drinking wells closed, cleanup at NC  
Marine base in home stretch

By Associated Press
May 18, 2013

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Purple wildflowers sprout in abundance around  
the bright-yellow pipe, one of several jutting from the sandy soil in  
this unassuming patch of grass and mud. A dirty hose runs from the  
pipe to an idling truck and into a large tank labeled, "NON-POTABLE  
WATER."

This is the former Hadnot Point fuel farm, Marine Corps Base Camp  
Lejeune's main fuel depot until it was ordered closed in the 1980s.  
At one point, a layer of gasoline 15 feet thick floated atop the  
groundwater here, and this "fluid vapor recovery" truck is part of  
the continuing effort to remove it.

"He's skimming that contaminate out of that well, into this tank,"  
civilian Bob Lowder, head of environmental quality for the base, said  
during a recent tour. "We'll take that off for recondition or  
disposal, as appropriate."

The coastal base is the site of what’s considered the worst case of  
drinking-water contamination in the nation’s history. But the Marines  
stress that that's just what it is - history.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/nearly-30- 
years-after-first-drinking-wells-closed-cleanup-at-nc-marine-base-in- 
home-stretch/2013/05/18/7b31fac8-bfc3-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html

You may need to copy and paste the link.

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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