Remedial Action, Sheppard AFB, TX

Trevet prepared a remedial design (RD) and performed a response action (RA) to remove pesticide and herbicide impacted soil at Site DP011. Sheppard AFB (SAFB) is the U.S. Air Force’s largest and most diverse technical and flying training base in the Air Education Training Command. Site DP011 is a 1.89-acre former pesticide spray area reportedly active between 1979 and 1986 in the southern SAFB, near the northern part of the golf course. The basis for the RD and response action was historical analytical pesticides results in impacted area soil that exceeded Texas Risk Reduction Program Remedy Standard A residential screening criteria.

The RD addressed truck traffic through the base as part RA management as well as potential impacts to a school adjacent to the site. Trevet proposed that excavated soil be loaded directly into trucks and hauled offsite, rather than stockpiled for sampling and characterization and then transferred a second time for hauling and offsite disposal. This required characterizing soil contamination prior to excavating and loading and collecting composite samples throughout the proposed excavation area.

The upper three to four feet of soil was removed and disposed of from the 0.586-acre excavation. Analytical results from 57 soil confirmation samples confirmed that pesticide contamination exceeding residential screening criteria was successfully removed. Direct loading of soil decreased the duration of potentially disruptive excavation and other fieldwork activities from months to two weeks. Existing site fencing was left in place rather than being removed upfront, securing the site during excavation and backfilling activities, and was only taken down afterwards for SAFB recycling or reuse or for offsite landfill disposal.