KEYPORT: Navy to hear more input on cleanup
Lloyd Pritchett — Apr 14th, 1994
The Navy is gearing up for Round 2 in its match with local residents over how to handle old toxic waste sites.
By Lloyd Pritchett
Sun Staff
A high degree of public interest has convinced the Navy to host at least three more public meetings about its plans for dealing with old hazardous waste sites inside the Naval Undersea Warfare Center at Keyport.
But no date has been set yet for what could be the liveliest of the three meetings — a continuation of the debate over what to do about a seven-acre dump site that the base has recommended not cleaning up.
A public meeting on the proposal Feb. 17 drew so much heat that the Navy had to halt the meeting before there was a chance to discuss plans for five other smaller hazardous waste sites inside the Keyport base. The Navy is proposing not to clean up four of those five sites.
The five Superfund sites will be discussed in two public meetings scheduled for later this month at the auditorium of the Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, at the entrance to the base.
The first meeting, 7 p.m. next Thursday, will focus on Area 2 (an old spill site on Van Meter Road), Area 3 (site of a torpedo fuel leak) and Area 5 (an old sludge disposal area). The second meeting, 7 p.m. April 28, will look at Area 8 (an old plating waste and oil spill area) and Area 9 (contaminated sediments along the Liberty Bay.)
A local citizens' environmental group, known as Olympic View Environmental Review Council (OVER-C), is critical of the Navy's plans for Areas 8 and 9, saying they don't go far enough.
The third meeting, focusing on the no-cleanup plan for the old seven-acre dump site (known as Area 1), will take place at a later date. A fourth meeting will be scheduled if necessary.
The Navy has proposed limited actions at most of the five smaller sites. Their preferred option for each site:
* Area 2 — Continued monitoring, but no cleanup, is recommended to ensure that levels of toxic chemicals continue to decrease at the site. A ban on future residential development also is proposed. Estimated cost: $200,000.
* Area 3 — No further action is proposed. The Navy says tests found that levels of torpedo fuel in the soil are so low they do not pose a risk. Estimated cost: zero.
* Area 5 — No further action is recommended except for additional testing of ground water. Soil tests found no contamination of concern. Estimated cost: not available.
* Area 8 — The Navy's recommendation is to partly clean up the site by excavating, treating and disposing of an estimated 6,400 cubic yards of toxic soil "hot spots" contaminated with plating wastes. Also recommended is treating of less contaminated soil, continued monitoring of ground water at the site and a ban on residential use. Estimated cost: $7.9 million.
OVER-C has criticized the plan, however, because it postpones removal of soil under the plating shop indefinitely. The plan also does not envision any treatment of contaminated ground water.
* Area 9 — Additional sediment sampling, but no cleanup, is recommended, since testing found the risk is low. Estimated cost: not available. OVER-C also has criticized this plan because it doesn't include test results from geoduck tissue sampling. None of the large mollusks could be found at Keyport — which itself could indicate a serious problem, the group contends.
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