The Campion-Galena site is about 250 miles west-northwest of Fairbanks, about 6 miles east of
Galena, and 350 miles northwest of Anchorage. This site is interior Alaska and is cold and
somewhat dry. Precipitation and surface winds are generally light with a mean annual
precipitation of about 12 inches. Temperature variations between winter and summer can be
extreme with a mean 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 near the former 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 (Figure 8). 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, and was also used by the Navy as a basic and
applied research center. In 1987, the Navy agreed to transfer ownership of NARL to the
Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation (UIC), a Barrow native village corporation. The complex,
currently operated by the UIC, houses a local college and provides office space for various
borough departments and contractors performing projects for the North Slope Borough. Our
partner was the Navy, and we worked with Battelle.
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
12
Previous Page
