NO TOXINS FOUND AFTER BASE CLEANUP RECORDS SHOWED NO WASTE REMOVED AFTER SITE CLOSURE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - A $4.5 million cleanup project on the site of a World War II-era chemical warfare chemical warfare, employment in war of incendiaries, poison gases, and other chemical substances. Ancient armies attacking or defending fortified cities threw burning oil and fireballs. A primitive type of flamethrower was employed as early as the 5th cent. B.C. storage yard turned up concrete slabs Concrete slab A shallow, reinforced-concrete structural member that is very wide compared with depth. Spanning between beams, girders, or columns, slabs are used for floors, roofs, and bridge decks. , but no hazardous materials, officials said Monday. Private companies working for the Air Force are wrapping up an excavation excavation In archaeology, the exposure, recording, and recovery of buried material remains. The techniques employed vary by the type of site, but all forms of archaeological excavation require great skill and careful preparation. in which 4,000 cubic yards of soil and debris were removed from four filled-in trenches next to a dormitory and near heavily traveled Rosamond Boulevard. ``Not knowing what was in there was unacceptable,'' said Gary Hatch, spokesman for Edwards Air Force Base's environmental management office. ``We needed to find out what was in them, and we needed to do it safely. This was something the base felt needed to be done.'' The trenches were 150 to 160 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep and were spaced about 35 feet apart. They were covered over decades ago after the storage yard was closed, and base facilities have been built around them. The cleanup crews found long concrete slabs, about 6 feet wide and 11 inches thick, that run the length of the trenches. On either side of the slabs were keyways, grooves that ran most of the length of the slabs. Base officials said they were not sure what the slabs were used for, but the keyways suggested they might have been used in some type of system to transport materials. The 1.6-acre site was used as part of a chemical warfare material storage yard that was operated in the 1940s. Military records show that mustard gas mustard gas, chemical compound used as a poison gas in World War I. The burning sensation it causes on contact with the skin is similar to that caused by oil from black mustard seeds. , a chemical agent called lewisite lewisite (l  `əsīt'), liquid chemical compound used as a poison gas. Like mustard gas and nitrogen mustard, it is a blistering agent; when inhaled, it is a powerful respiratory and tear gas tear gas, gas that causes temporary blindness through the excessive flow of tears resulting from irritation of the eyes. The gas is used in chemical warfare and as a means for dispersing mobs. were sent to Edwards - then known as Muroc - during the years the yard was in operation. The storage yard was closed in September 1946, but Air Force officials said they could find no records of materials being removed from the site. A memo issued by the commanding officer at the time indicated that the chemical warfare section was short-handed in the effort to destroy all excess chemicals on hand. The cleanup of the trenches was the most high-profile environmental project at the base. One end of the trenches was within a few feet of a $10.6 million, 136-person dormitory that opened in 1998. The trenches were also within walking distance of where 800 airmen live, officials said. Debris from the trenches was hauled to a disposal site inside the base's precision impact range area, a range used for weapons testing. |
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