Keeping Alaska clean: Alaska making progress in hazardous waste removal.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa

When most people picture Alaska, they imagine bright blue skies, fresh, unpolluted water, towering mountains and vast stretches of uninhabited land. And while much of the state lives up to this idealized image, there are some areas that, due to past environmental contamination, will take a long time to return to this pristine state.

Though it might seem hard to imagine, Alaska does have its share of hazardous, toxic and radiological waste. The good news is that the state and federal government, as well as Alaska environmental remediation companies, are taking the lead in cleaning up these polluted sites.

Brice Environmental Services Inc., headquartered in Fairbanks, provides remediation services within the state and nationwide. These services can range from inspecting buildings for asbestos to removing PCB-contaminated soil. "One of the most unique things that our company does is clean up small arms firing ranges," explained Craig Jones, executive vice president. "We have actually created a process that is in patent review right now that enables us to reclaim these ranges."

When soldiers train on a range, bullets are left behind. Made of lead, these bullets corrode and the lead leaches into the soil and groundwater. "We've been hired by the Army, Navy and Marines to come out to these sites and recover the expended bullets," said Jones. "We then send them to a lead smelter for recycling and reclaim the range for re-use."

Brice's patent-pending technology has been certified by the New Jersey Center for Advanced Technology, which examines emerging technologies to see if they are successful. The process also has been acknowledged in guidance documents relating to small arms firing ranges published by the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council.

According to Jones, the need for this type of remediation service will continue to grow. "The Department of Defense is currently inventorying small-arms firing ranges to see how many they have, and to rank the different locations in order of environmental threat," he said.

Already, the company has cleaned up an indoor firing range at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, as well as completed firing range projects in Louisiana, California, New York and Texas. They recently spent a year on the Massachusetts Military Reservation treating contaminated water for explosives and heavy metals.

"In terms of emerging environmental contaminants, firing ranges have become a growing concern, not only in Alaska, but...