ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, CLEANS UP MILITARY MESSES.

• Author: KANE, ROGER

Alaska District manages cleanup of nearly 600 sites in Alaska.

When investigators unearthed steel drums full of asphalt buried on Kodiak, it was estimated that cleanup would take a year and require 6,000 yards of soil to be cleansed. But the reality of cleaning up the mess from the 7,000 drums of tar-like goo buried by the U.S. Navy saw 43,000 cubic yards of soil remediated with work now entering its second year. Officials with the Corps of Engineers and experts working on the project say it should be finished this year.

Oversight of the cleanup is the responsibility of the Corps of Engineers Alaska District. The U.S. Department of Defense granted the Army Corps of Engineers the authority to oversee cleanups of formerly used defense sites throughout the nation when Congress created the Defense Environmental Restoration Program in 1983.

The Corps of Engineers' Alaska District has a work force of roughly 400 engineers, scientists, chemists and other specialists, some of whom provide oversight of environmental cleanups or assist other federal agencies on similar missions.

The Corps of Engineers takes the lead role of overseeing the Formerly Used Defense Sites Program and when requested completes work for the Army, Air Force, Work for Others and Support for Others programs. The Corps of Engineers, located at Elmendorf Air Force Base, has identified 599 formerly used defense sites in the state and that number is increasing. By next year, there could be as many as 630 formerly used defense sites identified in the state, according to Pat Roth, the FUDS program manager in Alaska.

While the list of sites gets longer, Roth said it is important to under stand that not all of the sites contain hazardous or toxic substances. Of the 599 sites already identified, Roth said at least 300 have been proven safe and clean by state standards.

As the list of formerly used defense sites grows, so does the number of sites the Corps of Engineers is working on. The Corps of Engineers is now working at about 130 sites in the state.

When a suspected formerly used defense site is reported to the Corps of Engineers, the property is inspected, an inventory of the materials on site is conducted and land-transfer documents are examined for written records of ownership by the Department of Defense or one of its components. Roth said records searches have taken the Corps of Engineers as far back as 60 years, but sometimes lead nowhere.

Some sites do not have records, but if there is evidence of a military or other DOD presence, the Corps of Engineers will often assume responsibility for the oversight of a cleanup project, Roth said.

"We are not allowed to clean up...