Since cleanup began in the early 1990s, about 630 holes have been drilled at the former U.S. Army tank farm property at Lutak Road, tracking contaminated soil and water. Beginning in June, an Anchorage contractor will drill another 1,000 holes, focusing on untested areas and ones suspected of contaminants.
The stepped-up drill program is made possible by an ultraviolet-technology tracking device called the “UVOST.”
Arden Bailey, field manager for Anchorage engineering firm North Wind, Inc., told the local Restoration Advisory Board last week that this summer’s tests will include using the UVOST in the facility’s administration area.
There, fuel may have been spilled at a mainline pump house and in the building that housed the generators that electrified the Cold War facility.
“We have data from 20 years of sampling. In the administration area, there are samples that have some contamination in them,” Bailey said. Contamination also was found in samples taken from the containment areas of four of the facility’s large tanks.
The company also will look in a former laboratory waste vault.
Bailey expects to find contamination in six areas, each no bigger in area than the Chilkat Center lobby, he told residents. The UVOST measures contamination to about 50 feet, taking a measurement every inch. What it finds is printed out immediately.
Bailey told residents that work to date has found contamination at the site between two feet and eight feet below the surface, and in groundwater. “We want to find the other sources (of contamination) and remove those, so the groundwater could be cleaned.”
Also this summer, North Wind will remove 14,000 feet of fuel pipe at the site that connected about a dozen large fuel tanks. The tanks were pulled down about 10 years ago.
Where the UVOST finds contamination, as many as 200 soil samples will be taken. “If it finds contamination, we take samples at highest concentration to see what it is. If there’s contamination near groundwater, we’ll put in a well to see if (contamination) is in the groundwater.”
There are currently 106 wells on the site to monitor water quality, Bailey said.
As the UVOST measures only petroleum, North Wind will conduct soil gas sampling at 100 locations to find chlorinated solvents such as TCE and PCE, from chemicals that were used for cleaning, Bailey said.
In addition, North Wind will use a high-powered metal detector that looks 10 to 15 feet underground, including to find a rumored buried drum cache near Lutak Road at Tanani Point.
North Wind is subcontracting to Bristol Environmental, which recently was awarded $8 million for work in Haines, at the former Tok fuel station, Sears Creek pump station and a site near Delta Junction.
The Haines work will include a report on this summer’s findings and a risk assessment document.
Meetings of the local advisory board are held twice a year. A fall meeting is expected to include tentative findings from the summer work.