The State of Alaska has adopted new regulations governing cleanup of contaminated sites – most of them more stringent. The new cleanup levels potentially mean more work, time and money for cleanup efforts at the former Army tank farm at Lutak and other sites around Haines.

Adopted Nov. 6, the state’s new regulations are the first changes to the standards since 2008, said Haines-based Anne Marie Palmieri, who manages contaminated sites for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

In the past eight years, more has been learned about the toxicity of specific chemicals affecting soils and groundwater in Alaska, Palmieri said.

Under the stricter standards, there may be more contaminated groundwater at the former Army tank farm site than was previously believed. The size of contaminated areas is likely to have grown, as well.

The Army has never addressed groundwater at the tank farm, Palmieri said, but contaminated soil from five small areas was treated on site several years ago. Two burn pits outside the fence were also treated. Now the Army is looking at the site as a whole.

Primary contaminants at the tank farm are heavy lubricating oils and “diesel range organics,” including carbon 5 and carbon 8.

The standards will apply to the Haines Fuel Terminal, the former Army tank farm at Lutak, spill sites along the former Haines-Fairbanks pipeline and private sites like the Delta Western gas station, which are in different stages of cleanup.

Each site must be assessed to determine how the new standards will affect their cleanup projects. Closed sites could potentially be reopened if, after evaluation, the DEC determines there’s a risk to health and the environment.

Palmieri said a number of sites in Haines where underground storage tanks were removed may have to be revisited or reopened.

Sites still in the early characterization phase will have an easier time applying the changes than areas that are further along in cleanup, Palmieri said.

DEC’s Bruce Wanstall said most of the contaminated sites he manages in Haines are in the later stages of cleanup, including the Haines sawmill and Jones Point.

He said they are down to monitoring for diesel range organics, and the levels for those chemicals did not significantly change.

But the new cleanup levels will extend the time the Delta Western gas station must be monitored for several carcinogenic chemicals present there. Monitoring has already been going on there for about 10 years.

One of the main concerns for Delta Western is to protect Sawmill Creek and the water that flows into it. The site used to be a wetland, Wanstall said.

“We installed a curtain down to the clay till layer and laid a pipe along the bottom of the curtain and that pulls the groundwater into a treatment system,” Wanstall said.

All the groundwater flowing toward the stream through the contaminated area goes through the treatment system and is filtered into a bioswale, which is a vegetated storm water treatment area. Paving surfaces near the station also limits how much water will infiltrate the ground near the site.

“Going forward, (the new levels) definitely have an effect on characterization and new sites,” Wanstall said.

Palmieri said the majority of groundwater cleanup levels became more stringent after DEC moved from a standard based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant levels for drinking water quality to a standard based on risks.

Palmieri said drinking water standards take in factors other than risk including ability to filter to a certain level or treat to a certain level.

DEC already was using risk-based standards for soil, she said.

“For a majority of compounds, our groundwater cleanup levels are a lot lower,” Palmieri said.

The U.S. Army out of Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks is responsible for conducting the cleanup at the fuel terminal. The Army contracted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which in turn contracted with Bristol Environmental out of Anchorage. Bristol is partnered with North Wind Group out of Idaho.

North Wind Group has been working at the site since 2007, doing summer field work and sampling as well as developing work plans. In the face of the new standards, the firm will be rewriting the “Draft Remedial Investigation and Risk Assessment.”

That document will “define the nature and the extent of contamination” at the fuel terminal, Palmieri said. It will also describe how work done at the tank farm in 2015 and 2016, and results from that work, compares to new cleanup levels.

The document will “draw a circle around the areas of contamination” in both groundwater and soil. It also will cover how the contamination in the soil and groundwater affect each other, Palmieri said.

The “risk assessment” part of the document evaluates both carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic properties of chemicals to human health and the environment from different types of exposures. The report will be delayed a few months, Palmieri said, and will be revised to match the new cleanup levels.

The updated cleanup levels have been in the works for several years and went through two public comment periods, Palmieri said, but she doesn’t think additional testing needs to be done at the tank farm as a result of the changes.

“When we were having discussions about those work plans, we discussed the potential change in cleanup levels and thought about how to incorporate that information into the (Draft Remedial Investigation and Risk Assessment) report,” Palmieri said.

Palmieri said she and a DEC risk assessor will review North Wind’s draft. They’ll send comments back to the Army and negotiate a finalized document. Depending on the results, several more steps may need to be taken and several more years may pass until additional cleanup work begins.

The Army is planning on coming to Haines in late spring to present findings from the revised report.

The fuel terminal was in use from 1955 to 1971, feeding the Haines-Fairbanks Pipeline with fuel from 12 tanks over 626 miles to Eielson Air Force Base.

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