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Island Restoration By the end of 1997, NOAA and its contractors had consolidated and removed thousands of tons of debris consisting of old cars, trucks, tractors, barrels, storage tanks, batteries, scrap metal, and tires from St. Paul and St. George Islands (Aleutian Enterprises 1997; Polarconsult 1997). Another major debris removal effort took place on St. Paul Island in 2000 (Nortech 2001); during this time NOAA afforded the community an opportunity to dispose junk vehicles, tires, and other debris. NOAA continued to remove smaller quantities of debris from the islands on multiple occasions through 2005.
Beginning in 2002, NOAA focused cleanup efforts on the remediation of soil contamination and the characterization of groundwater. NOAA and its contractors sampled for soil and water contamination at known or suspected sites. NOAA applied analytical sample results to determine the nature and extent of contamination, and to direct corrective actions where necessary.
NOAA completed cleanup of contaminated soil at all sites for which it is responsible on St. Paul and St. George Islands in 2007. When consistent with the nature of sites, NOAA has restored sites by applying fertilizer, native grass seeds, and other appropriate techniques to topsoils. NOAA extensively characterized physical and chemical properties of groundwater in the vicinity of sites where soil contamination is or was present. NOAA plans to conduct free product (i.e., a non-aqueous phase liquid, in this case a plume of mostly diesel fuel and some gasoline floating on top of the groundwater table) recovery in the St. George Island industrial oceanfront area (SLR Alaska 2005). NOAA also intends to conduct long-term groundwater monitoring on both islands; the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has approved monitoring plans for both islands at sites where groundwater contamination persists (NOAA 2005b; NOAA 2005c). NOAA restoration priorities also included the close out of the unpermitted municipal solid waste (MSW) and solid waste landfills that began during the time of the federal government’s management of the islands (e.g., the municipal landfill, ocean dumpsite, and the ballfield landfill on St. George; the municipal landfill, vehicle boneyard, and village cliffside landfill on St. Paul). Public Law No. 104-91 mandated the development of new MSW landfills on St. Paul and St. George Islands. Prior to closing out the currently functioning landfills on each island, NOAA worked with the two island communities to develop new and permitted MSW landfills. St. Paul and St. George Islands’ new landfills began operations during 2005 and 2007, respectively. Causes of Environmental Contamination Completion of Corrective Actions Department of Defense Environmental Restoration Responsibilities
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NOAA created this product in partial fulfillment
of a memorandum of agreement between it and the Alaska State Historic
Preservation Officer. |
