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Soil testing at Cemetery No. 2 begins
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Posted on Sep 01 2000
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractor, the Environmental Chemical Corp., have been conducting soil testings in Cemetery No. 2 in Tanapag village for the planned excavation of polychlorinated contaminated soil.
Testing of soil samples taken from the cemetery are analyzed in the laboratory at the Division of Environmental Quality by a chemist and samples of dust particles have been sent to a laboratory in the U.S. mainland to find out whether these are also PCB contaminated.
A representative from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 is also on the island to coordinate the cleanup.
“Testings will be conducted continuously to determine the level of PCB contamination in the cemetery as ECC excavates the soil until the desired cleanup level has been reached,” said Frank Ono, Army Corps civil engineer.
During Phase I of the project, an estimated 5,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil will be removed and temporarily stockpiled near the cemetery.
Cleanup of Cemetery No. 2 is a priority of the Army Corps so that the local people can enter the place on All Soul’s Day.
EPA and Army Corps have set the cleanup level at 1 ppm. Groundwater sampling and analysis will not be conducted during this phase. The temporary storage area for the excavated soil has already been prepared by the contractor.
Treatment of the soil is expected to begin early 2001. The Army Corps has assured the people that the low temperature thermal desorption process, which will be used in the treatment of PCB-contaminated soil, is the best technology available so far.
ECC has successfully cleaned up a much larger and more complex U.S EPA Superfund site in New Jersey where an approximately 95,000 tons of contaminated soil was safely and successfully treated using the same process.
