Army Corps cites levels of PCB, lead contamination in I-Denni

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the highest reading for polychlorinated biphenyls soil contamination in I-Denni/Edoni on Capital Hill is so far 19 parts per million even as the standard cleanup level is 1.1 ppm, while lead found in the area soil ranges from 40 ppm to 3,000 ppm and the goal is to keep it down to 200 ppm.

PCB and lead are toxic chemicals. These are found at a pit that the U.S. military used during and after World War II as a waste repository. It has been identified as a formerly used defense site, or FUDS.

“This is not high,” said Army Corps’ Helene Takemoto, referring to the highest reading of 19 ppm, which she said is still below the over 50 ppm threshold for it to be considered “contamination.”

The goal is to rid I-Denni of soil with PCB level of above 1 ppm.

“We’re going to keep digging until we meet what they call the environmental screening levels,” Takemoto said.

Takemoto, in an interview at the I-Denni removal site, said the Army Corps is cleaning up the area so that it could be made available for “unrestricted use.”

The Department of Public Lands will use the site, once it is cleaned up, for homestead subdivisions.

To date, 294 cubic yards of PCB-tainted soil and over 800 cubic yards of metal contaminated or lead-tainted soil have been removed from the site.

The over 1,000 cubic yards of soil so far removed have already exceeded the original estimate of up to 600 cubic yards.

PCB-tainted soil is placed in white jumbo sacks of 1 cubic yard each, brought to the seaport for shipment to Beatty, Nevada for proper disposal.

Metal-contaminated soil, meanwhile, are loaded in trucks for disposal at the Marpi landfill.

Tainted soil has been removed from surface to 3 feet and 5 feet deep.

“We would take a sample and then see if it meets the level, if not, we’ll dig a little bit more, take a sample. If it does not meet the level, then we’ll take another sample. And that’s how we’re doing it. Once we think it’s clean, then we take confirmation sample then send it off to the laboratory and the laboratory verifies our field sampling, saying it’s clean, then we move on,” Takemoto said.

They are waiting for laboratory test results to come back from Berkeley, California.

“If we find no further contamination, we’ll be finished hopefully by the end of this month,” she said, but if they find more contamination, removal could stretch to end of March.

Rep. Sylvester Iguel (R-Saipan), chairman of the House Committee on Health, said yesterday while he’s glad to hear that Army Corps does not consider the levels found in I-Denni as “high,” he said the agency should share its detailed findings to the public.

Iguel, who was active in pushing for federal cleanup of Tanapag of PCB tainted soil years back, said back in 1999, he and other villagers heard federal agencies say Tanapag is “safe only to find out after testing which we strongly pushed for that it’s not safe that’s why they spent $20 million to clean up the village.”

“I hope Army Corps provides the findings to the public concerning I-Denni. Anybody can claim anything,” Iguel told Saipan Tribune.

Rep. Stanley Torres (Ind-Saipan) said groundwater in the surrounding area should be tested.

Takemoto said Army Corps already tested the groundwater “and we didn’t find any Department of Defense contamination.”

The cleanup cost is currently at $603,543.73, and the cost could go up as the volume of tainted soil exceeds the original estimate. The Army Corps contractor is the Hawaii-based Wil-Chee Planning Inc.

The 1.4-acre site lies approximately in the center of a 7.43-acre undeveloped parcel owned by DPL. This parcel is surrounded by residential dwellings, a boat repair facility, and dense jungle vegetation.

The removal of tainted soil in I-Denni comes nine years after Army Corps completed a $20 million PCB cleanup of Tanapag. The PCB cleanup was completed in 2003 involving 40,000 tons of PCB-tainted soil.

Besides I-Denni, there are nine other formerly used defense sites on Saipan that require remediation, Sablan said. These include the Hospital Dump Site, American Memorial Park, Naftan Bomb Storage, Ordnance Plan, Naftan Ordnance Disposal, North Field, Marpi Point Field, Tanapag Fuel Farm, and Koblerville Naval Supply Center.