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Secretary of Defense Environmental Award—Environmental Restoration Hill Air Force Base, Utah

IntroductionLocated approximately 30 miles north of Salt Lake City,

Utah, Hill Air Force Base (AFB) is a major Air Force aircraftand missile maintenance depot and weapon systems pro-gram office with over 28,000 civilian and military employ-ees.The installation provides worldwide engineering andlogistics management for the F-16 Fighting Falcon,A-10Thunderbolt II Aircraft and the Minuteman III andPeacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles. Activities atHill include depot maintenance, repair and overhaul of theF-16,A-10, F-22 Raptor and C-130 Hercules aircraft. Theinstallation is the Air Force Center of Industrial and

Technical Excellence for the low-observable, “stealth,”aircraft structural composite materials and provides supportfor the B-2 Spirit multi-role bomber. Supporting more than40 tenant units and nearly a million acres of the UtahTestandTraining Range, the Hill AFB RestorationTeam isresponsible for oversight of all base and range environmentalrestoration activities.

Hill AFB has been an active military base and mainte-nance depot since the early 1940s. For several decades sincethat time historical waste handling and disposal practices,

Background

Hill AFB, UtahLocation:Primary Missions:

Area:

Population living near areas of groundwatercontamination:

Ogden, UtahAir Logistics Center,

Fighter Wing Headquarters, Management ofUtah Test and Training Range (UTTR)

Approx. 6,700 acres (UTTR: 1 million acres)

Approximately 20,000

Area of groundwater contamination: 1,700 acres(1,200 acres off base)

Environmental Restoration Staff, Hill AFB, Utah


along with other industrial processes have resulted innumerous contaminant releases. The base was placed on theComprehensive Environmental Response, Compensationand Liability Act (CERCLA), National Priorities List (NPL)in July 1987. In 1989 a Federal Facility Agreement (FFA)was signed by Hill AFB, the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) RegionVIII, and the Utah Department ofEnvironmental Quality (UDEQ). The majority of thereleases consist of chlorinated solvents and metals. Theseplumes extend into seven communities surrounding thebase. Approximately 1,200 acres of off-base commercialand residential property have been affected by the contami-nation, with most of this acreage in densely populated areas.

The Hill AFB EnvironmentalTeam manages its programwith the philosophy of cost-efficiency, while at the sametime meeting Air Force mission objectives and promotingenvironmental stewardship.

Key environmental restoration objectives includeprotecting human health and the environment; conductingall Restoration activities in compliance with the law;facilitating partnerships with researchers and technologyvendors to demonstrate technologies that will improvecleanup efficiency and reduce costs; implementing earlycleanup actions when appropriate; optimizing the perfor-mance of remedial systems and close sites as soon aspracticable. The success of the Hill AFB RestorationProgram can be directly attributed to innovative programmanagement, an extremely high level of technical expertise,regulatory partnerships and stakeholder involvement.

Hill AFB’s Restoration philosophy is to manage to the

Program Summary

Accomplishments

most cost-effective outcome and reduce time to ResponseComplete where possible; thereby, returning resources tothe mission.Where practicable, Hill AFB incorporates greenremediation principles.

Hill’s outstanding Restoration program is continuouslyincorporating strategies to accomplish its mission in themost cost-effective and environmentally responsible waypossible. Over the last two years, the Restoration programhas reduced annual operating costs by more than $435,000.These reductions have been achieved through innovativecontracting, improving process efficiency and incorporatinga continuous remedial optimization approach.

For example, Hill recently decommissioned a complexsteam stripper treatment system, which had been inoperation since 1993. Hill demonstrated to regulatoryofficials that the system was no longer needed, as contami-nant concentrations had reduced significantly. Hill requestedand received the regulators’ approval to bypass the steamstripper and divert all groundwater treatment to an on-siteair stripper.This change has saved $75,000 annually, or $1.5million over the expected life of the project.

Hill AFB has implementedTRIAD principles to all itsinvestigations to rapidly characterize the nature and extentof contamination at sites using the latest in technologyadvances, and reducing costs

One way Hill engineers have achieved this goal is toinstall high-tech nested monitoring well systems in place oftraditional wells.With this new system, up to four small-diameter wells screened at different depths can be installedwithin the same six-inch standard borehole.This system hascut well installation time by four months, saving $810,000at one operable unit alone.

Hill has used tree core samples to speed investigations

Using tree cores to determine the presence of TCE in thegroundwater yielded quick results and saved tens ofthousands of dollars over conventional investigations.

With more than 2,500 homes over areas of groundwatercontamination, much of the field work Hill does is literallyright in front of people’s homes.


and reduce cost. In some areas around the base, groundwa-ter contamination is less than 10 feet from the surface and isthus within the root zone of mature trees.Working withresearchers from Utah State University, Hill sampled thetree cores of dozens of trees in a 100-acre area suspected tocontain contamination. In less than a week, the team haddetermined the extent of the contamination, saving tens ofthousands of dollars compared to direct push sampling andunnecessary monitoring well installations that would havecome with a conventional investigation.

Hill engineers know that to understand the effectivenessof a treatment system, one must ask the right questions. Bycarefully analyzing each treatment system, defining whatsuccessful treatment means and designing a set of standardsto measure success, Hill’s RestorationTeam developedPerformance StandardVerification Plans (PSVPs) for each ofthe base’s Operable Units. Once the PSVPs were developed,monitoring was modified to gather only the necessary dataspelled out in the plans.As a result, only those monitoringpoints that provide useful information are used, and themonitoring frequency has been optimized to ensure that nounnecessary samples are taken.The result is an improvedunderstanding of treatment system effectiveness and anannual cost savings of more than $250,000.The datagathered are currently being used to optimize treatmentsystem performance, shortening, where possible, thecleanup time frames, also resulting in future savings to theAir Force.

Improving performance

Bombs to barriers

Hill AFB has implemented an innovative cost-reducingsolution by converting waste into material that assists inother cleanup processes. Permeable Reactive Barriers(PRBs) have proven to be an effective way of treatingTCE-contaminated groundwater. PRBs offer the advantage ofeffective treatment, low operation and maintenance costsand, once installed, virtually no adverse impact to nearbyresidents.The primary disadvantage is installation costs,with the reactive material (iron filings) being a significantportion of that cost. Hill engineers have been looking forways to deploy this technology at other locations, but at areduced cost.

Hill engineers found the solution literally lying on thedesert floor.Tens of thousands of cast-iron dummy bombsare located throughout the UtahTest andTraining Range’snearly one million acres. Bombs on the surface are col-lected, demilitarized and sent off for recycling, often at acost to the Air Force. Hill engineers saw an opportunity.Instead of shipping the demilitarized bombs away, the bombswere seen as an inexpensive source of iron.The bombsneeded to be crushed into a medium suitable for PRB use,but at significantly lower cost than commercially availableiron. After consulting with mining engineers, a large two-stage hammer mill was designed and built that pulverizedthe iron into sand-sized granules.The result is an installationcost savings of more than 20 percent, which translates into asavings of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a typical PRBinstallation.

The BDU-33, as it is known, is the standard aerialpractice bomb used throughout the Department of Defenseat ranges all over the country. Collecting and recycling thesebombs to treat groundwater contamination could savemillions of dollars at DoD installations.

This hammermill crushed cast-iron dummy bombs collectedfrom the Utah Test and Training Range for use as reactiveagent for Permeable Reactive Barriers.

Hill AFB’s unique conditions attracts attention of technicalresearchers throughout the world. And sometimes it attractsnot-so-technical researchers, like the George LucasEducational Foundation, which followed Clearfield HighSchool science students on base as they learned about Hill’sRestoration program.


Performance-based

contracts

Offending ornaments

The Restorationoffice is working hard toreturn property formission use.Through theuse of innovativeperformance-basedcontracts (PBCs), wehave done just that atOperable Unit 12.Through DoD'sEnhanced Use Leasingprogram, Hill will beleasing more than 500acres on the base’s westside to developers tobuild the Falcon HillNational Aerospace

Research Park. In return, the Air Force receives much-needed office space and significant reductions inmaintenance costs. In preparation for this development, anumber of infrastructure improvements were required,including constructing a new access gate to the base.However, the location of the gate happens to be atop a 12.5-acre parcel beset with volatile organic compounds,construction debris, drums and asbestos-containingmaterials.TheVOC-contaminated soil, is the source area fora groundwater contamination plume that extends for nearlytwo miles into the neighboring community.

The strategic goals for this PBC were to clean up theVOCs in the soil, eliminate any risk to construction workersand leave the site in a geotechnically sound condition forfuture construction—all while reutilizing all materialspossible (for example, crushing concrete for use as backfill)and minimizing the excavation and disposal requirements. Inaddition, the project had to be completed in 18 months.Hill’s RestorationTeam worked closely with the developer,the regulators and the contractor to develop an innovativeapproach to meet all project goals. Because of the complexi-ties of the site and the time constraints, work plans weredeveloped and implemented as the project proceeded,allowing for real-time decisions as data became available.This approach allows the contractor to adjust its approachmore quickly if it encounters unexpected conditions.

By implementing PBC principles through this approach,this project has saved more than $350,000 in comparison tothe government cost estimates.

Hill AFB’s Restoration program is DoD’s leader in

seeking out and remediating vapor intrusion into homes.There are more than 2,500 homes over the areas of off-basegroundwater contamination, any of which could beimpacted by vapor intrusion issues. However, our techni-cally savvy and professional staff has successfully dealt withthese issues so that there are no significant communityconcerns.The program engineers are continually forward-thinking and developing new ways of meeting the complexi-ties associated with characterizing vapor intrusion, identify-ing when groundwater is the source of the problem andensuring appropriate vapor mitigation measures are taken.

One of the challenges of characterizing vapor intrusionin homes is differentiating between vapors coming fromgroundwater and vapors from sources inside the home.

To adequately combat this challenge, Hill engineersworked with vapor intrusion experts and companies thatdesign monitoring and analytical equipment and togetherdeveloped new analytical methods for an existing toolknown as the HAPSITE (Hazardous Air Pollutants on SITE).This portable analytical devices uses off-the-shelf compo-nents and specially developed analytical procedures to giveHill the ability to locate and measure increased concentra-tions of specific chemical vapors at low part-per-billionlevels in a matter of minutes.

The HAPSITE was first successfully deployed in a homewhere 1,2-dichloroethane (DCA) vapors were detected.This was one of many homes in an area where DCA detec-tions inexplicably increased 400 percent between 2004 and2008. Mitigationsystems installedto prevent vaporsfrom entering thehome had notbeen effective,which indicatedthe source was notthe groundwaterand was mostlikely comingfrom inside thehome.TheHAPSITE identi-fied a plasticChristmasornament as thesource of theDCA vapors.Further testingfound severalother itemsemitting DCA

“DEQ is appreciative andsupportive of the environmentalwork Hill Air Force Baseconducts to protect Utah'senvironment and the publichealth of the citizens of the thisstate. Efforts by the base toprevent and cleanupenvironmental concerns havebeen vital to ensuring thequality of life we hold dear inthis state. As a stakeholder inthe process, DEQ is pleasedwith and supports the work HillAir Force Base is engaged in tomake our state a better place tolive.”

Amanda SmithExecutive Director

Utah Department of Environmental

Quality

Hill AFB is indeed an outstandingleader in the Federal Facility environ-mental cleanup arena. Their programmanagement excels in coordinatingnumerous, complex technical projectsand in resolution of stakeholderissues. Their response to potentialhuman health and environmentalemergencies is prompt and thorough,and quickly integrated into the overallprogram, such as with the discoveredPCBs and vapor intrusion issues.Technical documents are producedwith consistently high quality. HillAFB's Restoration Advisory Board(RAB) and interactions with thecommunity and local governments aresuperior in developing teams andpartnerships. Their RAB would servewell as a model for any site withcomplex issues and multiple stake-holders.

Robert L. StitesFederal Facilities Team Leader

U.S. EPA Region 8


vapors, all made out of the same plastic resin material.Testing similar items in other homes produced the sameresults.The use of the HAPSITE is now routine when aninside source is suspected.This device has already saved theAir Force an estimated $3.6 million by not having to installand maintain unnecessary mitigation systems. It has alsodeveloped an increased level of trust and understanding inthe communities as we can show residents the actual item oritems that are causing the indoor air contamination.

Hill’s Restoration Program emphasizes meaningfulpublic involvement in the cleanup process. Hill’s PublicInvolvement program is based on three principals:

1. Provide multiple ways to receive public input2. Communicate honestly and directly3. Respond quickly and completelyHill’s Restoration Advisory board is a model for the

Department of Defense. Established in 1995, the RABconsists of 26 members. Quarterly meetings are productiveand include reports from RAB working groups and breakoutsessions that allow members to have detailed discussionsregarding cleanup issues with Restoration engineers. Inaddition, RAB members may attend technical trainingsessions held prior to each meeting.These sessions provideinterested RAB members an opportunity to become more

Public involvement

technically savvy. RAB members are also offered specialtraining sessions and tours throughout the year.Thesesessions have included tours of the base’s industrial area andmaintenance facilities, a tour of the Operable Units,toxicology training, risk communication training and otherpertinent topics.Annual training is provided for new RABmembers to help them understand their role and how theycan best serve their communities.

But the RAB is not the only place for citizens to beinvolved. Hill regularly hosts meetings in each of thesurrounding communities to discuss issues pertaining to thecleanup. Called InfoFairs, these meetings are “Open House”style meetings that allow attendees to freely mingle and talkwith staff members. Hill also provides an independenttoxicology expert (Scott Phillips, M.D., University ofColorado Medical School) at each meeting to discuss health-related concerns people may have.

The Indoor Air Sampling Program is a significant part ofthe public involvement effort. Every year more than 3,000packets are sent to residents living in areas of potentialvapor intrusion.These packets include information aboutthe sampling program, a map showing the area of ground-water contamination near their home and instructions onenrolling in the program. Once the sampling is complete,each resident gets a personal phone call reporting theirresults. Because of this extraordinary communicationseffort, Hill has been able to keep community concerns verylow.

The Hill AFB Restoration Program’s goal for communityinvolvement is “No missed commitments.”Tracking commu-nications is an important part of ensuring timely follow-upis made and questions and concerns are not lost. Eachcommunication, be it phone call, letter, newsletter or email,is recorded in a contacts database.To date, more than20,000 entries have been recorded in the database, allowingthe RestorationTeam to know what was sent to whom and

Hill’s RestorationAdvisory Board isrecognized acrossthe country as amodel of govern-ment/ citizencooperation.

InfoFairs in the localcommunities are aregular occurrence,allowing residents to talkface-to-face with Hill’sRestoration staff.

The Hazardous Air Pollutants on Site, or HAPSITE, is aportable vapor analyzer capable of finding individual objects


when.The databaseis also set up totrack questions andfollow-ups.

Hill has alsoestablished aWebsite designed to actas an informationportal for both RABmembers and thepublic(www.hillrab.org).The site containsfact sheets, newslet-ters, maps, RABmeeting agendas andminutes, a calendarof public involve-ment opportunitiesand staff contact

information. In addition, the site acts as a management toolfor the RAB. Members can access documents for review,draft minutes and agendas and other RAB-specific informa-tion.

Because of open, honest and frequent communication,Hill's public involvement program has been successful inkeeping trust levels high and community concerns low.People know that if there were a problem, Hill's RestorationTeam would tell them, because we always do.

In 2007, a routine pesticide soil sample taken after thedemolition of an obsolete privatized base-housing unitrevealed a surprise—PCBs. Follow-up sampling revealedmore PCBs in the soil just a few feet from several basehousing units.The RestorationTeam took immediate action,beginning a fast-paced, comprehensive soil-sampling effort.Very detailed strategic planning, quick-turn analysis andother time-saving techniques were used to quickly charac-terize the area for PCBs. Restoration personnel workedclosely with the military housing contractor, the BaseHospital staff and a medical toxicologist and immediatelynotified the residents of the PCB discovery and held anInformation Fair with the residents to explain the findings,discuss health concerns and lay out future plans for investi-gation and cleanup. More than 100 residents attended themeeting, which was covered extensively by the local printand broadcast news media.Within five months, an investiga-tion comprising 13 acres and more than 800 samples wascomplete.

As the investigation unfolded, residents received

PCB cleanup

personal notification of the sampling results. In addition, aweekly update was distributed to residents keeping themappraised of the investigation’s progress and aWeb site wasdeveloped and updated weekly so residents could see theresults of all the samples.At the conclusion of the investiga-tion, another meeting was held to report the results.Predictably, because residents were kept informed through-out the process, trust was high, concern was low.

The investigation identified nine areas where PCB levelsexceeded residential standards. Hill also involved residentsin the development of the cleanup strategies.Those living inthe affected units were interviewed to determine what theirconcerns and requirements would be if they were to bedisplaced.These requirements were incorporated into thecleanup contract.

Only 22 months after the initial discovery of PCBs, thecleanup was complete, removing approximately 63,000cubic feet of contaminated soil and making the housing areassafe for residents once again.

In addition to the UtahTest andTraining Range, Hill AFBalso has management responsibility for theWendover AirForce Auxiliary Field Range atWendover, Utah. From the1940s through the 1960s,Wendover was used as an Air

Asbestos removal

During the PCB investigation, more than 800 soil sampleswere taken in the base housing area, some chosen by theresidents themselves. This built trust with the residents byallowing them to pick the area of greatest concern to them.

“Based on my 30-plus years ofexperience in group mediation andfacilitation, Hill AFB has developed anextremely successful approach toengaging the public in its environ-mental restoration activities. This isnot a coincidence — it is the result ofstrategic steps taken by the base toensure that it reaches out to thepublic “early and often” and incorpo-rates public input into its decision-making. The interaction between thebase and the RAB is constructive,without posturing or high emotion oneither side. This is unfortunately notthe case with many of the collabora-tive groups that I work with—it is agroup dynamic that reflects trust andrespect going in both directions.”

Michele StraubeMediator/Facilitator

CommUnity Resolution, Inc.


Force training facility.While most of those operations haveceased and much of the land ceded to the local city govern-ment, Restoration issues still remained on property stillowned by the Air Force. Recently, a 165-acre parcel of landwas found to harbor a large amount of asbestos-containingmaterials, such as roofing materials, siding and otherconstruction debris.These materials, most of which were onthe surface, were beginning to weather and becomingfriable, making them a potential hazard to nearby residentsand businesses.

In very rapid succession, Hill’s Restoration team securedadequate funding, investigated the site, determined the areasrequiring removal and began cleanup operations under aTime Critical Removal Action. Instead of excavating andhauling the materials away, it was decided to create an on-site landfill to minimize disposal costs and, more impor-tantly, reduce the risk to the public and reduce the project'soverall carbon footprint. By landfilling the asbestos on-site,Hill saved the Air Force nearly $1 million over the totalproject costs of other disposal options.

In all, more than 4,200 cubic yards of contaminated soiland materials were excavated from the site and buried in theon-site landfill.The landfill was covered with a soil andgravel cap to prevent erosion. By cleaning up the site, Hillrestored this previously unusable acreage, returning it tomission-ready status.

Getting the word outAt Hill, we don’t believe in keeping good ideas a secret.

If something works, we want to tell the world about it—andwe have.

Hill project managers are frequently invited to sharetheir successes at symposiums and conferences. In 2008 and

A large-scale PCB cleanup in a base housing area wascompleted in just 22 months and hauled away 63,000 cubicfeet of contaminated soil.

Construction contractors excavate an on-site landfill atWendover Air Force Auxiliary Field, into which 4,200 cubicyards of asbestos-containing materials and contaminated soilwould be placed. Landfilling the material on-site saved the AirForce nearly $1 million in transportation and disposal costs.

2009, Hill personnel presented 10 technical presentations inboth military and civilian settings and published 10 articlesin peer-reviewed publications; and these numbers do notinclude the countless presentations and articles produced bycontractors and researchers who have worked on Hillprojects.

Hill is also renowned as a fertile test-bed for cutting-edge remediation technologies. Research performed at Hillhas made great advancements in the areas of phyto-remediation, vapor intrusion, and biological-enhancedtreatment of groundwater. In the last two years, more than$2 million in research has been brought to Hill, withpotential applications across DoD and throughout theworld.

ConclusionHill’s Restoration Program has demonstrated time and

again that it leads DoD in innovative program management,cost efficiency, leading-edge transferrable technologies,sustainability and community involvement. Its commitmentto excellence and to mission is second to none. Evidence canbe found in its results, with millions of dollars saved througha conscientious application of a strong management philoso-phy of cost efficiency, mission support and environmentalstewardship.

Environmental Management

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