Work to resume on cleanup at air base

PHOTOGRAPHER: File Photo

An LC-130 takes off from the Stratton Air National Guard base.

Cleanup of contaminated soil at a site on the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Glenville is expected to resume soon, according to a state fact sheet issued Monday.

The cleanup focuses on two areas primarily covered by grass on the southwestern corner of the base, near Maple Avenue, according to the fact sheet.

The sites are dubbed Site 3 and Site 6.

On Site 3, a construction crew in 1990 encountered buried drums while performing routine repairs to the road next to the base’s sewage treatment plant, according to the fact sheet.

Then, in 1999, groundwater sampling at Site 3 detected “chlorinated organics.” That area was then dubbed Site 6, just north of the drum burial site, according to the fact sheet.

In all, the two sites pegged for cleanup cover a total of 1.64 acres of the base. The base itself totals 106 acres, according to the fact sheet.

Details on when the cleanup would actually begin and how long it might take were not available Monday. DEC estimated the cost of the cleanup to be $250,000.

Base officials also could not be reached for comment.

The fact sheet identifies the effort as part of the state Superfund program. The sheet also identifies the current efforts as a continuation of previous soil removal and screenings at sites 3 and 6.

But cleanup at Site 3, which covers 0.68 acres, is to include removal and off-site disposal of soil contaminated with xylene, a solvent found in a sample from a drainage ditch.

Crews are also to install a non-permeable barrier along the southern bank of the drainage ditch to isolate the Site 3 soils “from any future contamination from upgradient sources.”

Work at Site 6, which covers the remaining 0.96 acres of the cleanup sites, will involve removal of soil contaminated with “chlorinated volatile organic compounds.”

Workers will also inject a “chemical oxidant” into the ground in an effort to remove those compounds. Additional injections may be required, based on the results of groundwater sampling, according to the fact sheet.

The grassy areas being cleaned up are bounded by a drainage ditch to the west, a perimeter fence and access road to the southeast and the airport apron and facility buildings to the northeast.

The latest cleanup efforts follow previous efforts on the base. Four other sites were previously addressed in separate efforts, the fact sheet reads.

The first two sites were identified in a 1988 preliminary assessment. In 2000, the Department of Defense determined that further remedial efforts were needed at sites 3 and 6, resulting in an excavation of 173 cubic yards of soil in 2002 from Site 6.

Then, from May to September 2007, 390 cubic yards of soil from Site 3 was removed and 4,790 cubic yards of soil from Site 6 was field screened.