USAF TO SEEK WAIVER ON CLEANUP BASE OFFICIALS SAY WATER TESTS CAN'T MEET STANDARDS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Air Force officials said they would seek waivers from environmental regulators allowing them to halt efforts to clean up contamination on a site in a rocket-engine test area.

The Air Force has removed more than 5,000 pounds of a solvent contaminant from groundwater beneath a former rocket component repair and maintenance shop, but estimates it would take another $40 million to remove what it could. And even then, officials maintain, the water would not meet state cleanup standards.

``It's not a walking-away deal,'' said Gary Hatch, spokesman for the base's environmental management office. ``We will continue to monitor it, and, as new technology comes available, we will look at it.''

The ``technical impracticability'' waiver is being sought from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and a similar waiver known as a containment zone is being sought from the state, said Bob Wood, director of environmental management for Edwards.

In addition to showing that it is not possible to meet cleanup standards with existing technology, the Air Force will have to show that the contamination does not pose a health threat, Wood said.

``A waiver can't be granted if there's a public health threat,'' Wood said.

The contamination on the south side of Leuhman Ridge at what is commonly referred to as the rocket lab is in groundwater that does not supply the base's drinking water wells, officials said. The rocket lab is about 12 miles from the base's main facilities and six miles from Boron, the nearest civilian community.

The approval of the waivers would be part of the site's ``record of decision,'' a document in which the Air Force and regulators agree on the cleanup strategies for a particular site.

That document would be reviewed every five years to see if there were new technologies that could be applied to the site, Wood said.

The contaminant at the site is perchloroethylene, or PCE, found in solvents that were used at the repair shop. PCE has been shown to cause liver and kidney damage in humans.

PCE has been detected at levels of up to 180,000 parts per billion. The state has set a standard of 5 parts per billion for PCE.

Complicating the cleanup is that the contaminated groundwater is in fractured granitic bedrock, ranging in depth from 30 to 200 feet, Air Force officials said.

The Air Force started cleaning the groundwater in 1999, removing nearly 5,000 pounds of contaminant in the first two years. However, the cleanup is removing decreasing amounts of contaminants, removing roughly 500 pounds in the past year.

``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 was named as a federal EPA superfund site in the 1990s, and officials said they have spent approximately $200 million since 1980 on environmental investigations and cleanups, removing what officials estimate as 1.8 million pounds of contamination.

The base has also removed more than 500 underground fuel tanks.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com