PLANT 42 SITES REVIEWED THREE AREAS STUDIED FOR CONTAMINATION.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE- With one batch of preliminary studies completed and another nearing completion, Air Force officials plan to further study three sites at Air Force Plant 42 for potential environmental contamination.

Although environmental officials cleared 11 of 14 sites of human or ecological risks, two former fire training circles and a former disposal area need additional review.

In addition, field studies of 13 other sites are nearing completion.

Air Force officials said the preliminary results indicate they will likely install monitoring wells at two sites to watch contamination from solvents and petroleum products.

Those sites are an engine test run area located on the northern end of Plant 42 between Boeing's shuttle operations and Northrop Grumman's B-2 bomber facility and a fuel disposal area at Lockheed Martin's F-117 stealth fighter modification site.

All of the problems are the result of operations prior to 1984, before regulations were enacted to tighten environmental practices.

``We've learned our lessons from the past,'' said George Warner, remedial project manager for Plant 42.

The Air Force has spent $3.8 million investigating potential contaminated sites, with another $3.2 million in work under contract.

One of the former fire training circles, located between Boeing's shuttle site and Lockheed Martin's F-117 stealth fighter modification site, is being earmarked for further study because it has a well that was not included in previous groundwater studies.

The training circle site is about 90 feet in diameter and was used from 1954 to 1981 for fire training. Within this circle, jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, engine oil, hydraulic fluid and solvents were released and burned.

The other fire training circle, located about 1,500 feet north of the Palmdale Regional Airport terminal, is earmarked for further study because field studies turned up evidence of pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, in soil samples.

A feasibility study will be conducted to determine possible cleanup actions for that site, including scooping away the contaminated soil.

The abandoned disposal site is located on the north side of the base near where Boeing is modifying the orbiter Columbia.

Contractors will be trying to find the source of trichloroethylene, TCE, a chemical found in solvents. TCE was found in soil samples taken at the site.

Three monitoring wells will be installed to determine the extent of the contamination and if there is any impact to groundwater.

The site had been used from 1954 to 1974 for disposal of concrete and asphalt rubble, asbestos blast fencing, drums and other materials. Trash was also burned at the site from 1968 to 1974.

Cleanup campaigns in the early 1980s and again in the early 1990s cleaned the site of refuse.

The investigations are being managed by Aeronautical Systems Center's Acquisition Environmental, Safety and Health division out of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Aeronautical System Center is Plant 42's parent unit.