The first one

Well, since I haven't set up my site to link this to, here is my first story for the paper.

Joint STARS country gets cleaned up

Contractors are removing and replacing contaminated soil at the entrance to Joint STARS -Tanker country between Taxiway Echo and Beale Drive nera Bldg 2079. The soil was contaminated in 2002 by a broken JP-8 fuel line.

Cape Environmental Management workers are moving 6,500 tons - or about 500 dump truck loads - of polluted soil from the site to the Swift Creek Land Fill in Macon, according to Scott Harris, Robins Air Force Base project manager. After all of the soil is removed, contractors will use an absorbent compound to remove any remaining fuel and will fill the hole with new soil.

Taxiway Echo has been closed since the project started in January. But flight line operations have not been adversely impacted.

"There's really not a health problem with exposure," said Fred Hursey, 78th Civil Engineer Group, environmental program branch chief. "It's just something we need to clean up to minimize the impact to the environment."

The fuel line was repaired in 2002 and this remediation project was watining on funds from the Defense Energy Support Center, according to Mr. Hursey.

"The only potential side-effect could be utility interruptions since the water, electric, natural gas, and sewer lines for our East Ramp facilities run through the same corridor," said Ken Werner, 116th Air Control Wing environmental manager.

"The contractor is taking special precautions to protect the utilities, but the unexpected can occur when working around older utility systems. We have established a quick reaction notification process through the 116th ACW Command Post in case of any significant event," Ken said.

The $900,000 soil remediation project is scheduled to be complete before the end of May.

Hope you liked it. Come back next month and see what I write about then.