EDWARDS TO LAUNCH CLEANUP BASE WILL BE INSPECTED FOR SIGNS OF MUNITIONS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - In its early days, Edwards Air Force Base was an Army gunnery range. Now, the Air Force is checking to see if there any munitions from those days still laying about.

The desert and dry lake beds that are now Edwards became a military base in the early 1930s, first as an Army gunnery range and later as a bomber training range before evolving in the 1940s into a flight test center.

As part of a Defense Department-wide initiative, Edwards' Environmental Management officials are looking for unexploded bombs and shells and chemical residue in areas that might have been used as target ranges but are now serving other functions.

Those areas include base housing, shopping areas, the former Jet Propulsion Laboratory site at North Base, the rocket laboratory and base gates.

``We know we'll never bomb those areas again,'' said Paul Schiff, the Air Force project manager. ``We'll investigate them and clean them.''

The Military Munitions Response Program was created to address the cleanup of areas that, as of October 2002, are no longer in use as ranges. Nationwide, the Defense Department has identified 293 sites covering more than 280,000 acres that will be investigated.

Edwards is in the initial investigation phase, reviewing historical records and interviewing people who might know about some of the early ranges. About $200,000 is being spent on the effort.

The base is also using technology, including aerial photography and the use of Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR - radar-like aerial equipment that bounces light off a target and analyzes the light that is reflected back.

The photographs and LiDAR images will be examined for signs of bombing, such as crater rings.

``It takes research,'' said Gary Hatch, spokesman for the base's Environmental Management division. ``Even then there's no guarantee we'll find everything that has gone on before. We will use this technology to supplement our research.''

Later this year, the Air Force will start the next phase of the program, making closer examinations of areas identified as having possible munitions or chemical residue from munitions. That work will include geophysical surveys and soil sampling.

If a site is determined to need cleanup, a remedial investigation will be done to fully characterize the extent of the problem. That work is expected to be done in 2009.

Feasibility studies would then be conducted to determine the best course of cleanup work.

``This is a long-term process,'' Schiff said. ``It's not something that's done in a couple of years.''

Active ranges are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cleanups of those ranges are conducted annually.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com