MOBILE, Ala. – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing remedial action at former Brookley Air Force Base, located in Mobile County, Alabama.
Delmonico-PKS JV, LLC, has been contracted by USACE Savannah District to perform the area clean up as part of the formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program.
The Department of Defense is responsible for the environmental restoration (cleanup) of properties that were formerly owned by, leased to, or otherwise possessed by the United States and under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense prior to October 1986. Such properties are known as Formerly Used Defense Sites or FUDS. The U.S. Army is the DOD’s lead agent for the FUDS Program. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers executes the FUDS Program on behalf of the U.S. Army and DOD.
As part of the clean-up process, barrels of materials are transported to the site, which are used to balance the groundwater pH levels.
“The barrels are holding two things. The sodium Bicarbonate is to adjust the pH of the groundwater,” said Carl Dokter, Savannah District FUDS’ program manager. “Once the pH of the groundwater is where it needs to be, the contractor will inject the Emulsified Lecithin Substrate product, which is a food grade carbon (lecithin based) that enhances the bioremediation. It basically creates an anerobic environment in the subsurface that allows bacteria to work on the contamination and degrade it.”
The barrels of product will diminish as well as the environmental service gets closer to completion.
“It looks ominous because there is fencing to keep people out and the product is stacked,” said Dokter. “As the products are injected into the groundwater, there will be fewer and fewer barrels. Once that process is complete, the contractor will be removing some of the soil that is the source of the contamination. And the hole will be replaced with clean soil. We anticipate the process to be complete by the end of October.”
The Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are committed to protecting human health and the environment and improving public safety by cleaning up environmental contamination at former military properties.
For inquiries about the FUDS Brookley AFB project, contact USACE Savannah District’s Public Affairs Office at phone number 912-677-6039.
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With an area of operation across Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and northern Florida, and a vast military region that includes operations across Central and South America, the Mobile District’s awardwinning teams of engineering, construction, regulatory and emergency management professionals are nationally recognized for their leadership in delivery of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works and military programs missions to the Nation.