How Good a Neighbor Will the Air Force Be?
For those who weren’t around Tucson in the ’70s and ’80s, the discussion at the Tucson City Council Study Session on July 6th about building a $10M plant to get rid of something called 1,4 Dioxane, a carcinogen, won’t have a lot of meaning.
Both the agenda memo from Deputy City Manager Miranda and the recent Arizona Daily Star articles are careful not to mention Raytheon and seem to forget “Air Force” in Air Force Plant 44 at TIA. Miranda mentions only “several parties” in his memo. From the 1940s to the 70s, an Air Force contractor dumped industrial waste, solvents, concentrated acids and alkalines into the ground near TIA. The water supply, including both public and private wells, became contaminated resulting in one of the largest Superfund sites in the country. Click to read a history from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality of what happened.
At the City Council Study Session on Wednesday there was discussion of the need to move forward quickly with the new plant as EPA had raised the standard of unacceptability for levels of 1, 4 Dioxane in the drinking water that has been moving up toward the north part of town. There doesn’t seem to be an explanation of why EPA has raised the standard, but one can guess. Many think that the estimated $10M figure to build this plant is low and that Tucson Water customers in the end will get stuck with the bill for construction and operating costs. The City says they will go after reimbursement from the Air Force. (Just as the City had promised to go vigorously after state and federal funding for sound attenuation of homes after the passage of the extended Airport Environs Zone in Sept of 2004.)
Likely to avoid litigation, the Air Force and Tucson Airport Authority years ago signed a consent decree to clean up the contaminated ground and the water supply. A 2002 EPA study found that the Air Force was the significant source of the dioxane. The Air Force, perhaps not liking the results of this EPA study, are now doing another study that will take 3-5 years to complete. This is reminiscent of the Wyle study of Operation Snowbird (OSB) which called for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that was not done prior to bringing in Harriers, Tornados, F-18s, F-15 to fly over urban Tucson. The Wyle OSB Study was quickly stamped “Drafted Document Released Without USAF Comment or Endorsement” and the study was summarily terminated. An Environment Analysis (EA) of Operation Snowbird that was started back in September of 2010 seems to have disappeared for the moment. There is a pattern. If you don’t like the results of one study, do another one…a very lengthy one.
Below are some recent articles from the Arizona Daily Star about the 1,4 Dioxane and the TCE cleanup on the Southside
Air Force yet to decide on dioxane cleanup
Carcinogen discovered in ’02 within TCE area
By Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star, July 10, 20011
Lengthy TCE cleanup sees results
By Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star, July 10, 20011
New plant to remove carcinogen from water
1, 4 dioxane remains on south side despite city’s cleanup of TCE, TCA
By Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star, July 9, 20011
TF Note: When you have a knotty problem, is the solution to turn it over to a volunteer citizen group that has little technical knowledge and no money and then ask them to educate the community. No, we aren’t talking about the Military Community Relations Committee (MCRC) convened by Davis-Monthan to discuss the overflights. A meeting to discuss the groundwater-contamination issues will be held by the Unified Community Advisory Board on Wednesday, July 20 at 5:45 p.m. at the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, 101 W. Irvington Road.
Unless he’s a chemist, the average Joe drinking the water doesn’t understand ppb, 1,4 dioxane, trichloroethylene, or even what a carcinogen (causes cancer) is. Why isn’t Tucson Water or the Air Force out there educating the community. The City manager certainly got his staff out to all the Wards when he was pitching the sales tax increase.
In light of what has gone on with Tucson’s water supply on the Southside, should the taxpayer-sponsored Tucson Regional Economic Organization (TREO) be pushing to bring in the aerospace and defense industry? Has there been dumping of jet fuel or solvents at Davis-Monthan and the Boneyard which might contaminate the water supply of other areas of Tucson?
Honoring of the agreement by the Air Force to pay for remediation of damage done at AF Plant 44 will be a test of how they will respond should the F-35 come to Tucson and there is harm done to our community.
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