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| Cleaning up hazardous waste, as well as unexploded ordnance, remains a challenge for reuse authorities. Damon M. Young, a geologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, led a recent cleanup day at McClellan’s former toxic agent yard. Photo: Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star |
Though it was not on any program agenda, it seemed everyone at the annual conference of National Association of Installation Developers, an association of defense communities, knew about the violation at McClellan.
Less than two weeks ago, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management ordered the Army to stop its unexploded ordnance cleanup at McClellan, citing the Army Corps of Engineers out of Huntsville, the transition force at McClellan and their contractor, Tetra Tech, for hazardous waste violations.
During an inspection, ADEM personnel found thirteen 81-mm rounds that were removed during cleanup at the National Wildlife Refuge. Instead of being detonated and destroyed, they appeared to have been hidden a short distance away behind trees, some with mounds of leaves and dirt over them.
To experts who have spent decades dealing with unexploded ordnance cleanup and oversight, the incident was unheard of.
An investigation is under way to determine if this was an isolated incident or a recurring problem. Tetra Tech and the Army are cooperating with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, and the early prognosis is that this only happened one time with one crew.
"I think that in attending this conference what’s apparent is that, while an isolated incident, it is receiving national attention," said Pete Conroy, a member of the Anniston-Calhoun County Joint Powers Authority Board.
David Knisely, a partner with Garrity and Knisely of Boston and the JPA’s legal counsel in early transfer negotiations and other UXO-related issues, said he’s never heard of anything like it.
Ray Clark, who grew up in Anniston, has served as deputy assistant to the Secretary of the Army for installations and the environment, as well as assistant director of the White House’s former council for environmental quality. He is now a principal at the Clark Group LLC, an environmental economic development think tank, in Washington, D.C.
"That’s not the Army I know," Clark said at the conference Monday. "It’s not normal practice for them to do what they’ve done. The Army doesn’t do business that kind of way and somebody ought to be responsible for it. They ought to step up to the plate and do the right thing."
The right thing, he said, is to act quickly and be completely transparent about how this happened and how the Army is going to prevent it from happening again.
"They ought to want to know if this is systematic within their contractor or within their system," Clark said.
At a session Sunday called UXO 101, a panel of experts led a discussion on the difficulty and complexity of cleanup from the perspective of contractors, regulators and communities dealing with the issue.
When the panel was asked about the incident at McClellan, the four men’s eyes widened. They looked at each other, but offered no comment.
In the back of the room, Tom Lederle, director of the Hampton BRAC (Base Re-alignment and Closure) field office, stood up to explain. He said at McClellan, there was one crew removing unexploded ordnance that, instead of taking an appropriate action and detonating the explosives, left them in an area to be cleaned later.
A few people chuckled.
After the meeting, Lederle said this was a very rare occurrence and the first time he or anyone he works with has ever heard of something like this happening.
Lederle said had the Tetra Tech employee not reported the violation, the Army eventually would have found the ordnance when it went back to the area for investigation. He said the ordnance did not create a great deal of risk because it was in a gated area.
"That does not excuse the action," Lederle added.
Michael Houlemard, executive officer of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority and the panel’s moderator, said after the meeting that the cleanup methodology used around the country requires at least a half-dozen checks. It’s designed to ensure that every possible detection occurs.
"You can expect that to be the case even more now at Fort McClellan," he said.
However, one of the central themes of the workshop and the conference was the impossibility of cleaning a property completely.
Matrix Environmental Services, the program management team, or PMT, for the JPA’s privatized cleanup, was asked to come on the ADEM inspection at McClellan July 21.
"The system worked perfectly, because our job as PMT is to become steward," said Dan Schnepf, Matrix chief executive officer. "The downside is this should never have happened."
The incident was in the "Charlie" area, which Matrix will not have control over. Schnepf said his team was unaware of what was going on until contacted by ADEM, and he can’t speculate on the circumstances or why it happened.
"Going forward, we plan never to have any activity like that on our watch," he said.
When asked if the violation would have been caught later if not reported, Schnepf said site analysis is not 100 percent.
"It is impossible to remove 100 percent of contaminants," he said. "We try to reduce the risk. Nobody can eliminate the risk."
He said the Charlie area will continue to be monitored and the areas for which Matrix oversees cleanup will have detection analysis and studies of the highest nature combined with the appropriate land use controls.
Tim Tope, URS Corporation vice president and director of range and unexploded ordnance business, was on the UXO 101 panel. URS has been hired by Matrix to do unexploded ordnance removal in the Alpha area at McClellan. That work has yet to begin, but Tope, who is in based in Tennessee, was at McClellan July 21 and also went on the inspection with Matrix and ADEM.
When asked what URS would do to prevent a similar incident, Tope said he felt those measures were already in place.
"To me, we have a quality control program for investigative as well as removal components and we use them," Tope said. "Then matrix has their own UXO project manager on site."
When Lederle was explaining the situation at the workshop, he said the military and contractors were relying on newly trained people for base cleanup.
"A lot of the best people happen to be in Iraq right now or other places around the world," he said.
Tope said that’s not the situation at URS. The company has many long-term employees who have a good history with them.
Representatives of Tetra Tech attended the conference, but one familiar with the violation could not be located for comment.
Conroy said he feels better knowing there will be a complete investigation into the cause.
"We want to be certain this doesn’t happen again," he said.