BASE REPORTS PROGRESS ON TOXIC CLEANUP.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Ten years after being named to the U.S. EPA's Superfund list and 20 years after it began its environmental cleanup push, Edwards Air Force Base has whittled its list of potentially contaminated sites down from 469 to 165.

The Air Force has spent approximately $200 million since 1980 on environmental investigations and cleanups, removing what officials estimate as 1.3 million pounds of contamination. The effort, which is expected to last through 2030, is expected to cost an additional $220 million or more.

``In the next 10 years, we'll finalize all investigations and studies, propose cleanup systems and goals and sign a record of decision,'' said base spokesman Gary Hatch. ``The record of decision is a document we and the regulators agree on for the cleanup strategies - what gets cleaned up and to what extent and the likely methods.''

In addition to the 1.3 million pounds of contaminants that have been removed, Edwards has removed 512 underground fuel tanks, capped 669 wells and recycled 42,000 gallons of fuel.

Much of the contamination was caused by practices considered acceptable four decades ago, like hosing spilled jet fuel off the pavement and into drainage ditches - practices taboo today.

``All of our sites primarily have fuel and solvents,'' Hatch said. ``Fuel rises to the top and is fairly easy to remove. The solvents sink to the bottom and are harder to remove.''

Edwards began its push to clean up suspected contamination in 1980 after the Defense Department issued guidelines to investigate and clean up waste from past operations at military installations worldwide.

Henry Hearns, the base's first chief of environmental management and now vice mayor of Lancaster, said the base's environmental branch began with just three people, but had about 40 personnel by the time he retired in 1989.

``It really became a major effort,'' Hearns said.

Funding for the effort has also risen, climbing from about $5.7 million annually in the early 1980s to $24 million this year. Funding is expected to rise to about $32 million in 2003.

One cleanup project that base officials plan to start as soon as possible is a $6.3 million to $8.4 million effort to excavate four trenches that were once part of a chemical warfare storage yard. One end of the trenches is within a few feet of a 136-person dormitory that opened in 1998.

Base officials do not know what is buried in the trenches, which were part of a storage yard that operated in the 1940s. It is suspected they were used to dispose of empty containers and unusable or unneeded chemicals.

Edwards' interest in cleaning up contamination seems genuine, but there is concern that the budget-conscious Air Force might not always choose the best methods for protecting inhabitants or the environment, said Lyle Talbot, a member of Desert Citizens Against Pollution, an Antelope Valley watchdog group.

``I believe they are sincere, but I believe they quite often do what is the least expensive,'' Talbot said.

The trench cleanup is an example of that. The Air Force was leaning toward covering the area with asphalt or other material and leaving the trenches' contents in place. The Air Force had to be talked into the excavation plan, Talbot said.

Air Force officials said they decided to excavate the trenches after it was suggested they do so by the citizens advisory panel to the base environmental management branch. The panel told the Air Force that excavation was the only way to ever know what material was in the trenches and what risks they posed.

Desert Citizens Against Pollution sent copies of the base's preliminary engineering and cost analysis for the excavation project to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for independent evaluations, Talbot said.