Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class William Phillips | Personnel from Naval Support Activity Bethesda (NSAB) Public Works department and the...... read more read more
At a ceremony held July 14, Naval Support Activity Bethesda (NSAB) marked the completion of a years-long effort ensuring the base has properly cleaned up hazardous chemicals as required by the Resource Conservation Recovery Act.
Officials from NSAB, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and contractors who worked on the various projects over the years attended the event.
In an interview before the event, Paul said military bases in the region pre-date most environmental laws, such as the Clean Water Act, and it was “totally normal and acceptable to bury stuff in the woods or just discharge it down the drain; nobody thought that was a problem.”
To undo some of that, the EPA issued a corrective action permit, which included 30 sites that had to have some action taken, whether it was just investigating to make sure the issue had been resolved properly or finding an acceptable way to clean up the site.
The last cleanup site was signed off by the EPA in January and the corrective action permit was completed in May when the EPA determined that no further action was needed on any site, Paul said.
One of the sites that needed work was an area behind Building 17 that needed to be cleaned up before any construction on expanding the building could be started. Paul said the area had research buildings there previously which used to use chemicals such as mercury.
“At the time, their disposal method included burying things in the woods and some of their research included hazardous chemicals,” she said. “Now we have rules for how it leaves the base.”
A corrective action permit usually takes about 30 years to complete, she said, so finishing the permit in 18 years was a big accomplishment. The corrective action permit is typically renewed every five years and are updated based on the clean-up actions, she said.
“I’m really excited,” she said. “I’ve never actually not got a new permit. We typically have to keep renewing and the new version comes with more [requirements to complete] … to get a letter saying, ‘Hey, you don’t need another one of those’ is very exciting.”
Another site required finding out whether any hydraulic fuel had spilled from an elevator at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences, she said. Paul said they looked at all the elevators and were able to show that even if there had been a spill, it had been cleaned up and there was no way it could have escaped.
Additionally, a site was cleaned up where warehouses used to sit and the EPA found traces of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were used to lubricate mechanical equipment.
“PCBs are toxic for everyone so when we find them we get rid of them and we get rid of them quickly,” she said. “That got cleaned up before I got here and I’m glad that it did.”
Getting the permit signed off now allows for more opportunities on base, such as a stream restoration project Paul wants to start.
“It’s going to allow us to do some really cool stream restoration in the future,” she said. “We’ve already designed it.”
| Date Taken: | 07.20.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 07.21.2017 09:07 |
| Story ID: | 242029 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 25 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, NSAB Celebrates Environmental Cleanup Milestone, by Andrew Damstedt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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