Cleanup at Aircraft Manufacturing Site Enters Final Stages

The contamination story on a 26-year-old site is winding down to what could be the final public comment period. The site, called the Boeing Wichita Site in Wichita, Kan., now has a draft Corrective Action Decision that tells what remediation will finally close the book on pollution left over from years of airplane construction, according to this report.

The site at 3801 Oliver St. and the surrounding area was home to aircraft manufacturing beginning in the 1930s. In 1985, Boeing noticed contamination while it was performing an environmental investigation. Originally, the source of the contaminants was suspected to originate solely at a Cessna plant nearby. But as more test wells were drilled, it became apparent the pollution was widespread. Next, private water wells came up contaminated in the 31st and Clifton Street area. The primary contaminants detected were tetrachloroethene (PCE); trichloroethene (TCE); cis-1, 2 dichloroethene (cis-1, 2-DCE); vinyl chloride (VC); benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene(s) (BTEX); and chromium, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment documents.

To its credit, Boeing took an aggressive and active part in the investigations and remediation over the years, no doubt helping to prevent the site from falling under the Superfund program for lack of cleanup funds. The company currently operates “179 recovery wells, 195 monitoring wells and 9 air stripper sites.” It installed a “300-foot long by 30-foot deep groundwater interceptor trench to recover off-site groundwater contamination immediately upgradient of two springs ... at the northwest edge of the site,” and installed “more than a dozen air-strippers to remove TCE dissolved in recovered groundwater which is then discharged to the Arkansas River through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit or is treated at the Spirit Industrial Waste Treatment Plant (IWTP) and recycled for use in the Spirit plant.”

Besides continuing the air stripping operations, remedial action will also include bio-remediation in place and the maintenance of permeable reactive barriers to mitigate further spread of existing soil-based contamination. In cases where it’s necessary, remedial soil removal and disposal will be on the cleanup agenda.

by: Duane Craig

Delayed justice for Kansas residents

December 13, 2009 - The roughly 100 residents of Treece, Kansas, watched in 2006 as their neighbors immediately to the south in Picher, Oklahoma, were offered money for their homes and land in exchange for relocating to safer ground, due to the threat of cave-ins and contamination from nearly a century of mining in what's known as the Tri-State Mining District.

Finally in October of this year, Congress passed legislation securing a $3.5 million buyout for the residents of Treece. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said "It is our hope that this will give them the opportunity to raise their children, run their businesses, and get on with their lives, free of the burdens of pollution and environmental degradation."

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Pollution an enduring legacy at old ICBM sites

October 10, 2009 - As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.

he ICBM sites include 14 in Kansas, 10 in Nebraska, seven in Wyoming, seven in Colorado and two in Oklahoma. California, New Mexico, New York and Texas have one contaminated ICBM site each.

TCE may have polluted many more missile sites than the corps is aware.

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Bill would pay for moving residents out of contaminated Treece Kansas

November 17, 2007 - At first, Jim Powell, 74, opposed the idea of having Congress pay to move his trailer house from the small town of Treece, Kan.

But on Friday, he said he has lived on a hazardous waste site long enough. He's ready to move 10 miles north.

"This dust that's flying around, it's real hazardous," said Powell, a 12-year-resident of Treece, "I can wash my car and in two or three days it's all dusty and dirty again. We're breathing that....It's a helluva thing."

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