TodayDepot ready to turn over land
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Article RatingA van bumps along a gravel drive through an open space with rolling hills, scattered trees and high weeds.
Piles of asphalt, concrete chunks and stone sit off to one side. On the other stands a red fire hydrant.
In the past, this land at Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg was used to store military vehicles. In the future, "the hills," as the area is called, will be used for Cumberland Valley Business Park in Greene Township, Franklin County, a mixture of commercial and industrial buildings.
The land will be turned over to the public as Phase III of Letterkenny Army Depot's remedial action program, which cleans up contaminated land and turns it over to Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority (LIDA) for re-use.
LIDA developed the plan for reusing 1,450 acres of depot land associated with the 1995 Base Closure and Realignment Act (BRAC).
Some land was already transferred to LIDA - 233 acres in 1998 as Phase I and 327 acres in 2002 as Phase II.
BRAC environmental coordinator Bryan Hoke led a tour this week of the environmental cleanups for members of the Restoration Advisory Board and the public. The board, consisting of local government officials and residents, provides input about the cleanups.
The tour is designed to show the public "what we're actually doing and what Letterkenny looks like," Hoke says.
Conducted tests
The Army conducted rigorous tests on the soil and water before the Phase III land could be authorized for re-use.
This land escaped the contamination of much of the rest of the depot. "Previously, all of Letterkenny's groundwater was identified as being contaminated," Hoke says.
But perhaps because these parcels are located on an elevated point on the depot property, their 75-feet-deep wells are not contaminated.
Hoke says the Army investigated a ring of wells between two and three years ago and they tested clean.
So the 201 acres will be transferred to LIDA for the business park within the next four to six weeks, Hoke says.
The shale land had been used for vehicle storage since World War II, he says. But only a "small amount of soil" in the whole area - 35,000 tons - contained contaminants, he says.
The soil was contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that may have leaked from the stored vehicles or come from roofing materials. The soil was removed and sent to a soil-recycling facility.
Not all the cleanups have been so quickly accomplished - after only a year's worth of sampling, Hoke reports.
While the Phase III parcels did not need extensive cleanup, others areas do. Some cleanups take five to 10 years, including all the preliminary paperwork.
To complete the process, officials must investigate the site and write a report, propose a cleanup plan, detail the types of cleanup needed, clean the property and finally prove that the land is decontaminated before it can be transferred to LIDA.
Lead contaminates soil
Chambersburg Area School District is slated to take control of a parcel of land to create an environmental and agricultural center for students.
But the school probably won't see it until 2005, Hoke says, because the land was contaminated with lead. The depot had once used it as a scrapyard.
"Everything they couldn't get rid of would come through here," Hoke says.
Soil with the highest concentrations of lead will be mixed with a phosphate to chemically bind with the lead, Hoke says. That way, the lead won't leach into the groundwater.
In some places, the lead extends down through four feet of soil, Hoke says.
The studies for the BRAC environmental cleanups aren't cheap. Hoke says the Army has spent $47 million to clean up public land at Letterkenny so far, with between half and two-thirds of that money going toward the initial investigation.
A separate program cleans up areas that Letterkenny will retain for Army use.
