All News Releases By Date

EPA CALLS FOR AIR FORCE TO PROCEED WITH GROUNDWATER PUMP AND TREAT SYSTEM FOR LANDFILL-1; URGES NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE NEGOTIATIONS

Release Date: 10/22/1998
Contact Information: Johanna Hunter, EPA Press Office, (617) 918-1041

BOSTON - Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England Administrator announced that the Air Force's cleanup plan - Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) - for the Landfill-1 (LF-1) plume is unacceptable. EPA indicated that further discussion of a MNA-only strategy is unwarranted.

The agency stated that current data does not support the conclusion that MNA alone is a sufficient solution for this groundwater plume. Moreover, based on valuable input received from local residents, the agency determined that MNA has little if any community support. "If the public doesn't want it and the scientists don't support it, the Air Force should junk it," John P. DeVillars, EPA's New England administrator said.

Expressing frustration with the lack of any progress on compensation for injuries to natural resources, DeVillars indicated that EPA will withhold final judgement on the cleanup plan for LF-1 for 45 days.

He called on the Air Force and the natural resource trustees to use this 45 day period to immediately undertake mediated discussions on the natural resource damages caused by groundwater contamination stemming from the Massachusetts Military Reservation.

DeVillars said, "I hope and expect that, with the assistance of a mediator and serious effort by all participants, substantial progress will be made during the next 45 days in identifying the appropriate process, timetable and outcomes for natural resource damage compensation. "

Two natural resource trustees, the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA), have not yet signed the Natural Resource Trustee Council Charter and thus the Council has not even been officially formed. DeVillars sent letters today calling on DOI and the VA to appoint their trustees as soon as possible.

"It's time all the trustees sat down and thoughtfully established an orderly approach for determining what the damage to natural resources has been and how best to compensate the public for the loss of these resources," DeVillars stated. He pledged EPA's full cooperation in the effort.

In a letter to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for the Environment, Safety and Occupational Health, Thomas McCall, DeVillars indicated that EPA expects the Air Force to proceed with design of a pump and treat system in order to meet the enforceable deadline of March 18, 1999. He has directed his staff to work closely with Air Force engineers to insure that the design activities undertaken in the 45 day period prior to final EPA decision are compatible with either a modified or full system. "It appears that there is a growing consensus in the community that a modified system, known as Alternative 3E, is the preferred system." Alternative 3E would require installation of pump and treat systems in the areas of higher concentration in the LF-1 plume located in the northern and southern lobes. "The design activities over this period should be consistent with that modified approach but nevertheless preserve the full pump and treat option," DeVillars stated in a letter to McCall.