District prepares for next round of FUDS cleanup in Kingman
Daniel J. Calderón
KINGMAN, Ariz. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District held a public meeting Aug. 20 in Kingman, Ariz., to discuss upcoming time-critical removal action work at the site of the former Kingman Ground-toGround Gunnery Range. This is “round two” for the district. Contractors worked in the spring to clean up ten properties of soil which was contaminated with chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The contaminants were leftover from the clay pigeon debris strewn across the ground when the area was used as a skeet range during WW II. World War II-era clay pigeons were constructed with coal tar pitch which contains the PAHs. Skeet remnants, or the debris from these particular clay targets, remain in the area. During the upcoming round of clean ups, the Corps and the contractor will “abate, prevent, minimize, stabilize, mitigate, or eliminate the release or threat of release” of contaminants according to 40 Code of Federal Regulations 300.415(b) (1) on up to 42 properties. “We will be taking the contaminated soil out and replacing it with clean soil,” said Fran Firouzi, the district’s project manager. “We’re hoping to get started on the next phase in midto late-September.” Once the project begins, the district will work the properties in phases. If all goes according to plan, the district will complete two phases before taking a break for the holidays and complete the rest of the properties in early 2014. During the “construction” phase, the district and its contractor will remove all of the landscaping, rocks and similarly mobile items to store them in a secure location. The district will provide relocation assistance for residents and their pets since they will not be allowed back on to their properties once the work begins.
Tool improves Corps disaster response time
David A. Salazar
LOS ANGELES—In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the northeastern United States, causing billions of dollars in damage to the area. Task Force Power, the Corps’ rapid response team charged with providing emergency power to critical infrastructure during a disaster, installed 202 generators provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ultimately providing 54 MW of power and directly supporting 25,000 people. But the support rendered was not without its challenges. Every facility supported had specialized power needs and specific connection requirements that required hours and sometimes days to accommodate. “This is not a one-size-fits-all situation where we rolled up with 75 generators in the back of a van and started dropping the off and hooking them up,” said Jim Balocki, chief of the Interagency and International Services division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Every one of the generators had to be specially matched and connected to safely provide temporary power. Because it’s custom made, it takes a bit longer than what people expect and want, but it’s for the safety of the people living and working in the facility.” These delays could have been avoided and Los Angeles-area facilities could learn from these events to better prepare themselves in the event a natural disaster hits Southern California, said Anne Hutton, chief of the Los Angeles District’s emergency management office. The Corps has a system in place for critical facilities like emergency operations centers, hospitals, police and fire departments, and others to register and indicate their specialized power requirements should the need ever arise. It’s called the Emergency Power Facility Assessment Tool. The EPFAT is a database that is secure and stores information on the specific needs of each facility. It also allows responders to prioritize the needs of each facility and gives the 249th Engineer Battalion, also known as “Prime Power,” an idea of how many generators they need to arrange for and transport to the area. Those agencies who do not register in EPFAT run the risk of waiting additional hours or even days for emergency power should the need arise. “Delays in providing resources can be avoided if we know the requirements of a facility prior to a disaster,” Hutton said. “Also, the cache may not have a generator that meets the needs of all facility types. For example, a port may need a specialized generator that is not in FEMA’s cache. If the 249th knows this ahead of time, they can identify where they might get these specialized assets. If this doesn’t happen, we have to send a team out to assess the needs like figuring out how and where to connect it and how much power is needed. If we have the information ahead of time, we already know where it’s going to go, where the connections are, and what level of power they need.” Hutton oversees the district’s emergency management office, which plans for and responds to disasters in the dis-
Staff Sgt. Henry Howell and Sgt. Nathaniel Boecker of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 249th Engineer Battalion, inspect generators at the Ocean Bay Public Housing complex. The 249th installed over 200 generators, providing 54 MW of emergency temporary power to critical infrastructure after Hurricane Sandy pummeled the northeastern United States in October 2012. (Photo by Brooks O. Hubbard IV) trict’s area of operations on behalf of the Corps. She’s also in charge of making sure facilities like hospitals and other ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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