ESTCP Project #1011, Rhizosphere
Final Report
annual temperature of 27 F. It is accessible by road from Galena, by river, and by air. Galena is
accessible by air or by river.
3.3.3 Barrow. The Barrow site is the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (NARL) facility,
which is four miles northeast of the village of Barrow and six miles southwest of Point Barrow,
the northernmost point of Alaska (Figures 4, 11, and 12). It is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to
the west, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Beaufort Sea to the east. The NARL facility is on
land governed by the North Slope Borough Regional Municipality. The facility was established
in 1947 as a logistic supply center for petroleum exploration. The site was also used as a basic
and applied research center, contributing to Navy operations in the Arctic. In 1987, the Navy
signed a land-exchange agreement to transfer ownership of NARL to the Ukpeagvik Inupiat
Corporation (UIC), a Barrow native village corporation. The complex is currently operated by
the UIC. It houses a local college and provides office space for various borough departments and
contractors performing projects for the North Slope Borough.
Two major contaminated sites at Barrow are a former dry-cleaning facility and a former bulk
fuel tank farm. The dry-cleaning facility, located approximately 400 ft from the shore of the
Chukchi Sea, was operated at NARL from 1948 through 1978. For most of the years of
operation, the dry-cleaning solvent used was Stoddard solvent (a petroleum distillate containing
trimethyldbenzene, isopropyl benzene, nonane, decane, and undecane), and it was disposed
directly onto the ground beneath the building until 1972 when a solvent purification system was
installed. In 1974, the solvent was changed to the halogenated organic compound,
tetrachloroethene, also called perchloroethylene (PCE).
Investigations at the dry-cleaning site after 1987 found Stoddard solvent, halogenated organic
compounds, and TPH in the soils, along with alkylbenzenes, chloroform, methylene chloride,
and PCE. TPH was the most abundant chemical found, exceeding 100 mg/kg throughout most of
the site. The total volume of petroleum-contaminated soil was estimated at 7000 cubic yards
(cy). In 1994, approximately 500 cy of soil was excavated to a maximum depth of 8.5 ft and was
treated by venting for PCE contamination. The excavation was treated again in 1995 to comply
with new standards for PCE contamination (the "Land Disposal Restrictions Phase II", RCRA-
59 CFR 47982, lowered the risk-based standard for PCE from 18 mg/kg to 6 mg/kg).
Confirmation samples after treatment showed PCE ranging from below detection limits to 4.5
mg/kg and averaging 0.93 mg/kg. Residual DRO concentrations in the treated soil ranged from
230 to 810 mg/kg and averaged 504 mg/kg. Final GRO concentrations ranged from below
detection limit to 85 mg/kg and averaged 18.2 mg/kg. The treated soil was spread over the
former area of contamination in October 1995.
The bulk fuel tank farm at Barrow was about two miles northeast of the main NARL complex,
near the northeast end of the airstrip (no longer used) and between the North Salt Lagoon to the
west and the Elson Lagoon and a large freshwater melt pond to the east. The bulk tank farm
consisted of six aboveground tanks that stored diesel fuel, gasoline, Mogas, and JP-5 aviation
fuel. The tanks were connected to other parts of the facility by three fuel lines that ran along the
15
Previous Page
