Cleanup endures at IAAP: Despite progress, decades of work remain at plant.

Oct 22, 2009 (The Hawk Eye - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TTEK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Hurdles continue to interfere with cleanup efforts at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. But whenever they arrive, contractors find a way to jump over them before another appears on the horizon.

As the installation restoration contractors from Tetra Tech have found a way to clean 10 times as much soil this year over last year's total count, the additional soil is more quickly filling up the landfill trenches. Trench six, the only active landfill site, and its neighbor trench seven, where soil treatments are completed, are set to be closed when this year's work wraps up for winter.

"In our wildest dreams, I don't think we'll get this cleaned up totally very soon," said restoration advisory board member Mark Hagerla during its regular quarterly meeting Tuesday.

He said the additional cubic yards of soil -- up to 13,527 cubic yards in 2009 through a chemical treatment, compared to just 1,526 cubic yards in 2008 with a biological treatment -- and closure of the only active trench should not give the impression that work is nearing completion.

The earliest program expected to be finished has a 40-year timeline that will put its completion date around 2027. Other projects that started around 2002 are too new to hazard a guess for completion.

Still, progress is being made.

Rick Arnseth of Tetra Tech said despite the impending closure of the only active trench, there is hope that his program and another one can use chemical treatments on the soil in its original location, rather than moving it for treatment. The only side effects of the alkaline hydrolysis process are high soil pH and sodium in the soil.

Whatever cannot be done on site will be hauled off-site, which is already done with some hazardous materials.

Arnseth also reported grass is finally growing over capped landfill trenches.

Ron Frerker of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is working on the formerly utilized site remedial action program that handles cleanup on Line 1 activities, also hit a snag in seeking out radiological material: There's a lot more of it than expected.

"When we first looked at barium, it didn't appear to be too much of a problem," Frerker said. "Now, we're looking at 2,800 tons."

That's just for one metal, too. Overall, he said the FUSRAP staff have stockpiled more than 11,000 tons of hazardous material out by the west burn pads so far.

Like Arnseth, Frerker said the group is hoping to use chemical treatments at the original location, rather than hauling the product off-site or to the landfill trenches. He said nearly 16,000 tons have been moved to the inert disposal area since 2007.

Frerker said construction of a new trench is something to consider for materials that cannot be taken care of in their original place.

To that end, the contractors plan a meeting to reassess the total number of contaminants at the site.

"Once we have that information, we'll know the additional tonnage that will have to be disposed of," Frerker said.

As always, former workers continue to point out more geographic secrets about the place, which contractors say help explain a lot.

Despite the slow but steady progress, IAAP environmental projects manager Rodger Allison said the plant is ahead of most others of its ilk.

"We're probably two steps ahead of the rest of the nation," Allison said, adding that the plant was also the first to start its cleanup efforts.

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