Hill proposes $21.4 million green cleanup

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — It's no secret that environmental cleanups cost money. Hill Air Force Base officials expect to spend $21.4 million on Hill's environmental restoration project for fiscal 2010.

That's $70,000 higher than the current year's budget, part of the money the U.S. Air Force has set aside for its bases that have been named as Superfund sites.

For more than a half century, groundwater plumes contaminated with potential carcinogens have been seeping from the base into seven surrounding communities: Layton, South Weber, Riverdale, Roy, Sunset, Clinton and Clearfield. Other contaminated areas have been found on the base, as well.

Since 1987, Hill has been on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of Superfund sites, and restoration efforts have been under way since 1990.

Currently, base environmental engineers are striving to meet the Air Force's goal for all contaminated sites to have all remedies in place by 2012, said Steve Hicken, the base's remedial program manager.

That means officials are working on designs and studies to implement future groundwater-extraction wells, contaminated-soil removal and other projects to eliminate contaminants from the ground.

Hicken presented the proposed budget to members of the base's Restoration Advisory Board, a citizens group made up of local residents who advise base officials on community issues related to contamination.

Forty percent of the cleanup budget is designated for current monitoring, operations and maintenance.

After excluding personnel and management costs, Hicken said, he expects to have nearly $9.6 million to spend on new projects in Davis and Weber counties.

Possible projects could include plans for a new contaminant-extraction well at the base boundary near Riverdale, a $4.5 million cleanup of contaminated soil on the western side of the base, various cleanup designs and soil studies in Sunset, Layton and Roy.

Hicken said he hopes to ramp up work toward meeting the Air Force's implementation goal in fiscal 2011. He projects that nearly $33.7 million will need to be spent.

From now until 2028, which is how far budgets are estimated, the Air Force is expected to shell out about $350 million for the environmental cleanup.

Hicken said it could take 65 years before most of the contamination is removed from the surrounding communities. Some areas will be completed sooner, he said, and some will take longer.

"Hopefully, within that time frame, we will evaluate new technology," Hicken said. "If there's a way to shorten the time frame in a practical manner, we will certainly be looking at it."

E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com