Griffiss Park Closes Another Chapter in Long-Term Environmental Restoration Project - 12/5/2011

Griffiss Park Closes Another Chapter in Long-Term Environmental Restoration Project-12/5/2011

By PAT MALIN

The clock is rapidly ticking down on the environmental restoration of the entire Griffiss Business and Techn-ology Park.
The Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment (AFCEE), which has been supervising the cleanup of hazardous chemicals and wastes at the former Air Force base for more than 15 years, provided the latest update at a restoration advisory board meeting on Nov. 16 at the Griffiss Institute.
Michael McDermott, site manager for AFCEE, said 3,310 once-contaminated acres have been cleaned and transferred to Oneida County.
Just 192 acres on 12 sites need to be restored and they are all in the vicinity of Griffiss International Airport.
McDermott said AFCEE hopes to get a record of decision on these parcels by the end of 2011 and transfer them to the county, although the physical cleanup and long-term performance monitoring will continue for a few more years.
Three of those sites are designated for use by the airport, while the remaining nine will be turned over to the Oneida County Indust-rial Development Agency, he said.
Since the last advisory board meeting a year ago, three parcels near the airport were deeded to Oneida County.
At the restoration advisory board meeting, maps of the clean and still-contaminated sites were distributed to coincide with the powerpoint presentation. The meetings are open to the public, but very few people attend.
Representatives from the New York State Department of Environ-mental Conservation (DEC) and the U.S. Environmental Protect-ion Agency (EPA) come to Griffiss regularly to monitor the progress of the cleanup.
Contractors from several companies, FPM, which has a branch office in Rome, Parsons Engineering of Syracuse, CAPE and AECOM have teamed up on the remediation work at Griffiss Park.
The Air Force and the Army Corps of Engineers who have spent more than $138 million on the cleanup thus far, hired the contractors and have to adhere to a tight schedule.
Enter the EPA and DEC. “They have to meet a certain number of anticipated closures by the end of 2011,” said Douglas Pocze, a project manager for the EPA’s New York City office, who attended the meeting at Griffiss Institute.
“They set the cleanup dates, not us. We just approve the remedy and whether they can get a record of decision.”
Pocze explained that the sites that were contaminated by petroleum spills are supervised by the state DEC.
Once the site meets their standards for redevelopment, the DEC and EPA can award a record of decision for unrestricted use and the deed on the property will be transferred to the county.
Redevelopment at Griffiss Park is generally restricted to commercial use. In a few cases, a site will be barred for future development because it is still hazardous to human health and its record of decision is termed “indefinite.”
At the height of the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s, the B-52 bombers and KC-135 tankers were refueled at Griffiss and other harsh chemicals, paints and cleansers were used in maintenance.
Chlorinated and petroleum solvents, including trichlorothene, dichloro-thene and PCBs (poly-chlorinated biphenyls) leaked into the ground and the water on the base.
Jennifer Waters, an official with the Griffiss Local Development Agency (GLDC), the park’s landlord, opened the remediation meeting by giving an update on GLDC projects. It includes renovations to the nose docks at the airport.
Those renovations have just begun at the site of many formerly contaminated sites. GLDC is getting close to completing construction of 17 additional t-hangars for owners of private planes. And when these hangars are rented, it puts more money in Oneida County’s and the taxpayers’ pockets.
GLDC has also been able to extend the walking trail from Ellsworth Ave. up the hill to Technology Heights, adjacent to the closed landfill (a “farm” for contaminated soil) on Perimeter Rd., and built a bridge across 3 Mile Creek since continuous monitoring and sampling has determined that those areas are now safe for public access.
Both 3 Mile Creek and 6 Mile Creek cut across Griffiss Park property. The engineering companies not only had to remove the soil that was contaminated, but they removed the contaminated sediment in the creek beds as well.
The fish in the creek continue to be tested for PCB contamination.