I attended the Hill Air Force Base RAB (restoration advisory board) meeting on Thursday October 24th. This is a comprising of many different board members including city council members from neighboring cities, representatives from the EPA and UDEQ, community representatives, and other entities. Here is the agenda for this meeting.
The contamination in our city is something I have been trying to understand better. I am no expert in it. I am still learning and I don't have all the answers. However, I have been asking a lot of people a lot of questions, and I can say I have a better idea of what is going on than I did a few months ago. I am hoping sharing what I learned can help you better understand as well, and together we can all be better informed and thus better involved. These are just the answers I have received from some of my questions.
Okay so for starters: Where did the contamination come from? Most of the contaminants happened before the 70's when the base would dispose of chemicals by burying it in the lands. Most of these dumping sites were on the slopes of the base's boundaries, and over time that contamination spread. There are several "plumes" around the base's boundaries; Layton, Clearfield, Sunset, South Weber and Riverdale are all just some of the community's that have plumes. South Weber has three, though one, OU4 is technically located mostly in Riverdale. You can see these plumes on our sensitive land maps in yellow. OU2 sits above 475 E and OU1 is located near where the proposed Knoll's development will be.
How do they determine the size of a plume?
This has been a huge question of mine. I've been told many things when I ask this question. I learned from this RAB meeting that HAFB has wells all over these communities. These wells monitor the ground water and look for contaminants, specifically TCE and recently newly founded Benzine. TCE is a potential carcinogen. The Base was charged with cleaning up the contaminant from groundwater following Hill's designation as a Superfund site in 1987. It remains on the U.S. EPA's National Priority List. They use these wells to determine the boundary of the plumes. Some wells have had clean reports for a significant amount of time so the boundary is re-adjusted. When this happens, the plume is considered to be "shrinking." Other plumes haven't moved at all due to complexities in the soil making mitigation difficult to happen. No contaminants have ever been found in our drinking water.
How does mitigation/clean up happen?
The contaminants are similar to radon. They are dispersed when they hit oxygen. That means when they come to the surface, they are able to be broken up and distributed to the atmosphere in a way that is not hurtful to humans or animals. However, if it never hits oxygen, it will stay there for a great deal of time before it is naturally broken down. The efforts of contractors, hired by the base to do the cleanup/mitigation, have yielded varying results as they have used different methods of cleanup. The latest contractors used a method of vegetable oil and what they called "bugs", microbes that are injected down into the plumes. These bugs consume the contamination and break it down. At some of these sites, this process worked very well. At others, not so much. This was thought to be from the amount of clay making it difficult for the bugs to "travel" through the soil and consume the contaminants.
Are their homes threatened by the contamination?
While other areas like Layton and Clearfield have 500-600 homes that they feel would need a vapor system to address these contaminants leaking into their homes (similar to how radon happens), according to HAFB South Weber doesn't have very many homes that have been built in the plumes boundaries. The first time this will happen is with the Knoll's property, which is a cause for concern and why HAFB recommended those homes have a vapor intrusion system installed. According to the Base, if you have a home they recommend to have air testing done, you should have been contacted by the Base via door to door visits or through a mailer. However, if you are concerned about it, the Base will come do an air sample in your home.
What's Next?
The Base is getting ready to renew a new 8 year contract with contractors to continue to work on cleanup on these plumes. These new methods may be different than what the current contractors have been doing, or they could continue with the new ways. The RAB meets 4 times a year and is a public meeting. Currently Blair Halverson is our city council member who is a member of the RAB. If you would like to be more involved, he is who you should talk too. Because of the nature of the election, things may change after new seats are taken up in January so stay tuned to the city's website to see if the council members for the RAB changes.
The news actually did a short segment of this meeting. I will attach it here for you to view. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I can't promise you I will know the answer, but I will do my best to find out for you. One thing I have learned about this contamination is there are polar opposite views, it can be a very controversial conversation. Sometimes it is hard to know where the truth actually lies. However, the more I study, the better of an idea I think I am getting of it. Additionally, HAFB has come and done presentations to our city a few times.
For more information on groundwater monitoring and air sampling:
https://www.hill.af.mil/IAP/fbclid/IwAR1HD7pozrKZQI0OOPuqwRiU_YcxcybNcbZZU7hym4_KwuRskBPz0a5EsJw/
For more information on groundwater monitoring and air sampling:
https://www.hill.af.mil/IAP/fbclid/IwAR1HD7pozrKZQI0OOPuqwRiU_YcxcybNcbZZU7hym4_KwuRskBPz0a5EsJw/
HAFB Presentation to city council February 12th, 2019:
Fox 13 News segment:
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