NEWS RELEASE 2003-33
October 3, 2003

Air Force Starts Up Rebuilt Treatment Plant That Was Destroyed By Fire Last Year

Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR), Cape Cod, Mass. — Officials of the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE) announced today that start-up operations have commenced at the rebuilt Fuel Spill-1 (FS-1) groundwater treatment plant that was destroyed by fire last October in Mashpee’s Quashnet Bogs.

“Initial water treatment operations began on September 30th,” said AFCEE project manager John Schoolfield.   “Laboratory results have now verified the effectiveness of our treatment process and the first treated water from the rebuilt system was released on Wednesday into the Quashnet Bogs.”

Schoolfield added, “Construction of the plant and the expanded treatment system has been closely coordinated with the Mashpee Conservation Commission to make sure that the adjacent wetlands are protected.”

The expanded system includes three new extraction wells, which are located on property owned by the Town of Mashpee and Orenda Wildlife Land Trust.  Two of the wells are located in the core of the FS-1 groundwater plume.  The other well is located at the plume’s leading edge and replaces a field of 175 shallow, low-flow extraction wells in the Quashnet Bogs.

The new wells are connected by a network of pipes to the rebuilt treatment plant, which contains three granular activated carbon (GAC) tanks that treat the groundwater.  The original plant housed two GAC tanks.   The FS-1 groundwater treatment system is anticipated to operate for fifteen years.

Before the fire on October 13, 2002, the FS-1 treatment plant was cleaning up one million gallons per day of groundwater contaminated with ethylene dibromide (EDB).  Since beginning operations in April 1999, the original FS-1 plant had removed more than 40% of the plume’s EDB contamination.  The contamination was the result of aviation gasoline that was spilled or dumped onto the ground over thirty years ago at the Massachusetts Military Reservation.

For more information, please call Mr. Doug Karson, AFCEE/MMR Community Involvement Specialist, at (508) 968-4678, ext. 2.