Published in the Asbury Park Press
By KIRK MOORE and JOSEPH SAPIA
Staff Writers
Air Force officials have obtained an additional $1.7 million to finish cleaning up plutonium-tainted soil at the old Bomarc air defense missile site in Plumsted and could soon announce a schedule for resuming the work.
The extra money is needed to remove an additional 1,300 cubic yards of soil from a drainage ditch that runs on both sides of Route 539, where water from firefighters' hoses carried particles of radioactive plutonium during a fire on June 7, 1960, that destroyed a missile and its nuclear warhead.
Once work resumes, it's estimated the job could be complete within four months, said Maj. John Dorrian, a spokesman at McGuire Air Force Base. But first, Air Force managers are negotiating a work schedule with contractors, Dorrian said.
In the meantime, the Air Force will schedule a new round of community meetings to explain the project extension and "catch everyone up on where we are and what we will be doing," he said.
Plumsted Mayor Ronald S. Dancer, who is also an assemblyman, said he was "elated and relieved" about getting the added cleanup funds.
"We're certainly relieved," Dancer said. "When you read of federal deficits, it raises some apprehension as to how much will be available."
The added money is to be used to clean contamination across the road from the Bomarc site, Dancer said.
No contamination was found in the ground water on the west side of Route 539, but very low levels were found in the soil, Dancer said. The contamination was contained undisturbed in the grassy swale, Air Force officials have said.
Dancer praised Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., and Plumsted Township Committeeman Joseph J. Przywara for keeping on top of the Bomarc site cleanup. It's likely the project can be finished this fall, Dancer said.
Additional digging could finally close out concerns about the Cold War missile base, where state officials in the mid-1980s briefly proposed creating a temporary storage site for low-level radioactive soil in the neighboring Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area.
That notion was quickly dropped in the face of overwhelming community opposition. But it also helped focus attention on the question of a Bomarc cleanup. It took another decade for the Air Force to find an affordable storage site for low-level waste in Utah, and digging began in earnest last year.
By early June, 17,323 cubic yards of soil and concrete had been dug up and shipped to the Utah landfill. Then engineers determined that ongoing soil sampling showed the drainage ditch near Route 539 should be excavated to ensure the site is fully restored. A work plan approved by civilian environmental agencies specifies that all soil with radiation levels above 8 picocuries per gram must be removed. According to Air Force planning documents, that level is associated with a 1-in-10,000 risk of excess cancer -- meaning that after cleanup, if 10,000 people were exposed to the soil over a 40-year period, there is a probability that one person would develop a cancer he or she would not get otherwise.
The site's radioactive hot spot was in front of Shelter 204, where the fire broke out after a high-pressure helium tank burst inside the missile.
The Bomarc (named for the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center) was a long-range supersonic interceptor missile designed to blow up intruding aircraft.
During the height of the Cold War, Bomarc missiles were kept on ready alert, prepared for launch within minutes of a warning that Soviet bombers were headed for American cities.
Blazing fuel and oxidizer melted the plutonium core of the missile warhead, and investigators later calculated that several ounces of the dense radioactive metal was dispersed into the soil by firefighting water.
Most of the plutonium traces were less than 2,000 picocuries per gram, allowing the bulk of the excavated dirt to be classed as the lowest of low-level radioactive waste, engineers have said.
In all, the total estimated project cost will be about $19 million, Dorrian said. That price tag includes 11 miles of road improvements and a new railroad siding at nearby Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station, which enabled contractors to move tainted soil and concrete rubble without using public highways.
Published in the Asbury Park Press on August 5, 2003
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