Federal and state environmental regulators have found fault with the Army's proposals for "no further action" and land reuse restrictions for most of the Fort McClellan landfills and fill areas. In written comments, the regulators told the Army, which is the lead agency for cleanup at the former fort, that it hasn't done an adequate investigation of toxic contamination at the 10 McClellan landfills.
By Friday afternoon, both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management had supplied comments to the Army regarding its recently completed two-year landfill investigation at McClellan.
The Anniston Star obtained EPA's comments Thursday and ADEM's comments Friday.
Rather than directly criticizing the "no action" proposals, the agencies focused on what the EPA in two instances called "fatal flaws" in the sampling and data analysis of contaminated soil at the landfills.
In general, EPA and ADEM criticized the scarcity of data used by Army contractors to reach conclusions that no human or ecological risk is posed by contaminants, including arsenic and mercury, that were detected in elevated concentrations in surface water and soils.
Pending a more detailed environmental investigation, "EPA cannot agree with the (cleanup) decisions proposed
for any of the landfills or fill areas," according to EPA's comments, provided to the Army in mid-June.
In a Friday letter to the Army, ADEM echoed EPA's call for a more detailed investigation. ADEM also asked the Army to conduct a dye trace study - in coordination with dye testing already planned for Weaver, the Anniston Army Depot and other locations - to determine flow patterns and whether a groundwater cleanup is necessary.
ADEM said the dye trace studies would help lead to an understanding of groundwater flow patterns in Calhoun County.
Activists and litigants in the Monsanto PCB lawsuit also have asked for a dye trace study for the Monsanto landfills in western Anniston.
ADEM also criticized what it said was a lack of investigation of potential toxic off-gassing and surface water contamination from the fort landfills.
Fort McClellan's environmental project manager, Glynn Ryan, told The Anniston Star Friday that the Army will wait until it has received all public comments on its proposed landfill plan before it responds to the ADEM and EPA comments. The twice-extended deadline for comments is Aug. 19.
Glynn defended the landfill investigation, however, saying the Army's two-year investigation of the contamination and cleanup alternatives, called an Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis, was based on EPA's "presumptive remedy" of capping military landfills, rather than removing them.
The Army is the lead agency on environmental cleanup at McClellan. The Joint Powers Authority, ADEM and EPA participate in the decision-making process in monthly meetings of the Base Cleanup Team (BCT).
However, because of concerns about the pace of property transfers and the status of contaminated lands, the fort reuse authority now is formulating a plan to privatize landfill cleanup at the former fort.
The JPA has contracted with a consulting firm, Matrix Design Group of Colorado, which is reviewing the Army's landfill investigation and helping the JPA pull together a "privatization plan." The plan will describe how the Army and JPA might agree to privatize the landfill or other portions of the environmental cleanup, according to JPA planning director Miki Schneider.
Matrix will present its recommendations to the JPA Aug. 17, Schneider said.
The EPA's Fort McClellan project manager, Doyle Brittain, said Wednesday that at least one other Army installation cleanup in the Southeast, Charleston Naval Base, has been transferred to a local authority for cleanup.
Federal law dictates that privatized military cleanup must be overseen by the state - in this case, ADEM.
Not the least of the JPA's concerns is the landfills, according to Schneider. She said the JPA is not pleased with the Army's proposals to leave all of the landfills in place and reduce groundwater monitoring.
"It's not in the best interest of the community in the long term," she said.
"We are concerned about the marketability of land adjacent to the landfills," Schneider said. She noted that the cluster of landfills near Reilly Airfield, on the northwestern boundary of the fort, prevented the JPA from gaining access to Alabama Highway 21 to build an industrial access road. The absence of such a road has caused several companies to lose interest in locating at McClellan.
The 10 landfills in question at include hazardous and non-hazardous historic dumping areas, one of which continues to be used as a municipal landfill. The most worrisome of the landfills, a 22-acre parcel tagged Landfill 3, is the target of ongoing Army investigation for volatile organic chemicals which have migrated westward under the Alabama 21 median.
The Army already has granted several extensions on the comment period for the proposed landfill plan, in order to allow the JPA to conduct its own engineering review of the Army's investigation.
Meanwhile, the Army has installed 10 new groundwater monitoring wells west of the Fort McClellan boundary and is awaiting the results of new rounds of sampling.
"Fort McClellan will need to conduct additional sampling in surface soils, subsurface soils, sediments, streams, lakes, wetlands and seeps," according to the ADEM comments provided to the Army on Friday.
RAB Board, public to hear reports Monday
The Army, the fort reuse authority, EPA and ADEM each will provide reports during a quarterly meeting of the Fort McClellan Restoration Advisory Board at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
The public is invited to the meeting, which also will feature presentations on human and ecological risk evaluations and unexploded ordnance.
The Joint Powers Authority's planning director, Miki Schneider, said the issue of the McClellan landfills will be discussed during the RAB meeting.
The meeting will be at McClellan's Transition Force Conference Room, Building 215, 291 Jimmy Parks Boulevard.
For more information, contact Brenda Cunningham at 848-3539.
