Mission = Informing + Educating The Public

Readers of this blog may wonder what the media and/or press are all about . . .  it's not about getting "spoon-fed" media tip sheets [although they are welcome to see] or playing spin-doctor helper. Whatever is news always has a context; what you see is what you get > or is it?

For example, like this recent article in the Mesa Independent dated September 15, 2015
More than 1 million pounds of fuel in soil removed with steam at former Williams AFB in Mesa

Fuels in soil? . . .  say what? ya mean there's oil discovered here in the desert at a former Air Force Base?? ... and there's a new extraction process using steam technology? NOT.
WAFB has morphed into Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport - a prime area the City of Mesa is now promoting for economic development  that was a serious hazardous waste site - it's still being "cleaned up"
Read the entire report on the still on-going environmental cleanup >>>

http://www.azdeq.gov/environ/waste/sps/Former_Williams_Air_Force_Base.html#cia
Summaries ran like this: 

Contaminants:
Discharges and disposal at WAFB resulted in soil and groundwater contamination. Contaminants of concern include organic solvents and paint strippers, pesticides, petroleum hydrocarbons, automotive fuel and additives, jet fuel, aviation gas and semi-volatile organic compounds (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Contaminants of concern at the site may change as new data become available. Other contaminant materials investigated include perfluorinated compounds (PFC's), select heavy metals, metal plating wastes, radiological wastes, unexploded ordnance and chemical weapons material.
Public Health Impact:
No known human health exposure risk is present  at this time. Exposure pathways have been eliminated through remediation or restricted access/use. No  drinking water supply wells are known to be impacted.

Here's some context: [notice the careful wording] 

The 4,043-acre Williams AFB was a flight-training school in 1941. During its 52 years as a military aviation, training, supply and maintenance complex, several areas of the former base were environmentally impacted from industrial practices that were legal and commercially accepted at the time, according to the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s website.

Contaminants from military operations include organic solvents and paint strippers, petroleum, metal plating waste, hydraulic fluids, pesticides and radiological wastes. In 1983, the U.S. Air Force implemented the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program to identify, investigate and remediate sites at Williams AFB. In 1989, the base was added to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List as a Superfund site, according to the website.

WHAT IS THE NATIONAL PRIORITIES LIST? 

National Priorities List (NPL): EPA’s list of the most serious hazardous waste sites identified for possible long-term remedial response under the federal superfund (CERCLA).

WHAT'S THE SUPERFUND?

Superfund: The program . . . funds and carries out EPA solid waste emergency and long-term removal and remedial activities. These activities include establishing the National Priorities List, investigating sites for inclusion on the list, determining their priority, and conducting and/or supervising cleanup and other remedial actions.

Here's a link to a mapping of this Superfund site from AZ Dept of Environmental Quality >> http://www.azdeq.gov/environ/waste/sps/download/phoenix/wafbmap.pdf

The map is intended to provide the public with basic information as to the estimated geographic extent of known contamination as of the date of map production. The actual extent of contamination may be different. Therefore,the plume for this site may change in the future as new information becomes available. 0 3.25 6.5 13 Miles Date Map Saved :4/27/2015

This blog provides links for readers to use, so use click on or touch-screen the underlined word article at the beginning and read what Richard H. Dyer had published

The restoration advisory board is tasked with providing a way for the USAF and regulators to educate the community about the environmental cleanup work at the former Williams Air Force Base. Members met quarterly and now semiannually with officials from the USAF and contractors to discuss the progress of cleanup efforts. On Sept. 15 the board met at ASU Polytechnic campus’ 

According to Dyer's report, total cleanup costs are $89.6 million at the former WAFB as of fiscal year 2013, Ms. Geissinger said in a phone interview Sept. 18. Cleanup of the remaining sites will cost an additional $40 million.

As a result of these cleanup activities, the Air Force has transferred 3,892 of the former base’s 4,043 acres to state and private ownership, according to the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s website.

“This whole area is one of the Air Force’s crown jewels for redevelopment because they have managed to turn it around and make it a success with the college and the airport,” Scott Johnston, a contractor in public affairs for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, said at the tour.

Catherine Jerrard, of the USAF Civil Engineer Center, who is project manager for environmental work being done at the former WAFB, said Restoration Advisory Board adjournment, or ending the semi-annual meetings, will be discussed at the group’s next meeting, tentatively planned for March 15.

RAB adjournment “is when it serves its purpose and comes to an end. We said we were going to talk about that again tonight but we’ve decided to defer it for six months because we have a lot of things still going on. We may pick that up again at our next meeting to discuss that,” she said.

“What’s impressed me over the last 20 years, when we first started this, it looked like such a daunting task and now it is so well under control,” Len Fuchs, Former WAFB Restoration Advisory Board community co-chair, said at the Sept. 15 meeting. “The Air Force and the agencies they work with have really done a fine job in cleaning up ASU here,” he said. “This has been such a cooperative effort and look what we have here in the east Valley, that ASU has taken the campus, and the airport.”