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Air Force says it's out of options for fuel spill cleanup

By JEFFREY BURT STAFF WRITER March 16, 2000

OTIS AIR BASE - The best way to deal with a plume of contaminated ground water migrating into the Coonamessett River in Falmouth may be to leave it alone. Air Force officials say they already have a system in place that will capture 99 percent of the contamination in the Fuel Spill-28 plume over 18 years. And they said last night the only option for cleaning it up faster is a controversial plan that already has been rejected by residents, town officials and a citizens advisory panel to the cleanup at the Massachusetts Military Reservation. The $12 million plan calls for installing a treatment system within the Souza Conservation Area. It would reduce the clean-up time to nine years, but would mean cutting down trees in the conservation land and would result in parts of the river occasionally running dry. Earlier this month, members of the Joint Process Action Team asked Air Force engineers to develop options that would cut the clean-up time but save sensitive conservation land. Michael Goydos with Jacobs Engineering, the Air Force contractor on the base cleanup, told the panel that other alternatives would do little to reduce the clean-up time because the bulk of the contamination is in the southern end of the plume, which is where a treatment system would have to be built. Most panel members said they'd rather let the current system take care of the plume rather than threaten the conservation area, although member Joel Feigenbaum of Sandwich suggested an option he wants the Air Force to explore. However, Goydos said Feigenbaum's idea of staggering two wells north of the Air Force's proposed site would not reduce the time involved and could have its own environmental impacts. FS-28 is a long, thin plume running from the military base into the river. The primary contaminant is ethylene dibromide, or EDB, an aviation gas additive and probable carcinogen. Several years ago, the Air Force installed a treatment system to protect a Falmoth municipal water supply and did more work there to protect cranberry bogs along the river. During a recent public hearing, residents and town officials came out in opposition to the military's additional treatment plan. The Air Force extended the public comment period on the proposal to April 25, and plans to meet with the JPAT again April 12. ____________________________________________________

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 16, 2000