By Tom Charlier
Contact
August 15, 2005

Excavation crews had almost finished cleaning up a past disposal site at the old Defense Depot last spring when they came across bottles -- thousands of them -- containing some unknown liquid.

The discovery of the quart bottles prompted a delay of several months in a project designed to remove contaminated soil from part of Dunn Field on the northern edge of the depot in South Memphis.

But now, after extensive laboratory tests and an additional appropriation of funds, work is slated to resume next month.

As it turns out, the clear liquid in the 3,000 bottles contained orthotolidine, a substance used to test water for the presence of chlorine, said Jackie Noble, spokesman for the Defense Distribution Center in Pennsylvania, which is overseeing environmental work at the Memphis facility.

Given the age and acidic nature of the liquid, officials are treating it as hazardous waste. The material will be shipped to an an out-of-state hazardous waste incinerator, Noble said.

"There was never any danger to the public. We just want to make sure we do everything right," she said.

In addition to the delays, the bottle discovery raised the cost of the cleanup from $500,000 to $1 million.

"It was going great until they came across those bottles," said Evan Spann, environmental specialist with the division of remediation in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's Memphis office.

Once work resumes, the cleanup should be completed within a couple weeks.

The soil cleanup is the latest of a series of environmental projects targeting contamination at Dunn Field.

For decades, the field served as a disposal site for the now-closed depot, with everything from chemical weapons materials to industrial chemicals buried there.

Next year, officials hope to begin installing systems designed to treat contaminated groundwater beneath the site, Spann said.

-- Tom Charlier: 529-2572