Published in the Asbury Park Press
An Asbury Park Press editorial
Score one for cooperation and common sense. The Department of Defense has responded well to local concerns about transporting plutonium-contaminated soil from an old missile base in Plumsted. The latest plan for cleaning up the scene of a near-catastrophic accident in 1960 will have trucks carry the tainted soil and concrete over roads within Fort Dix and the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station.
The biggest hurdle to the cleanup plan, which is long overdue, was winning the support of Plumsted, Lakehurst and Manchester officials. They and the state Department of Environmental Protection are satisfied that the trucking route poses the least risk to populated areas. Even so, the Defense Department will hold several information sessions for the public over the next few months and will solicit feedback. The military properly has recognized that it needs to convince local residents that it is proceeding in the safest way to complete a job that should not be put off any longer.
The goal is to remove about 12,000 cubic yards of soil and 440 cubic yards of concrete and building materials contaminated when several ounces of plutonium leaked from a nuclear warhead during a June 1960 fire.
If the military had kept neighboring Lakehurst and Manchester apprised last year of plans to truck the soil several miles on public roads to a railroad siding in Lakehurst, there might not have been as much local opposition. Because the two towns were not told until the original plan was announced, suspicions were raised. Better late than never, that plan was scuttled.
The BOMARC site is just off Route 539 in Plumsted. The cleanup plan includes removing concrete slabs around the silo in which the missile burned and surrounding soil down to 20 feet below the surface. The cleanup will cost an estimated $6.5 million.
Next spring, the debris is scheduled to be loaded onto rail cars at a refurbished rail siding on the Lakehurst base and then will be taken by train to a nuclear waste site in Utah.
The water table is 50 feet below the surface of the missile site. The plutonium remains a hazard for thousands of years, so it must be removed. The military also is working to clean up other contaminants at the site, which might one day be something other than the useless area it has been for the past 40 years. Getting the work completed safely and thoroughly is a goal that everybody should support.
Published on July 1, 2001
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