Fairchild hits milestone with environmental restoration program Published Nov. 8, 2007 By Tech. Sgt. Larry W. Carpenter Jr. 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The Installation Restoration Program here, spearheaded by Marc Connally, 92nd Civil Engineering Squadron base remedial program manager, has achieved a milestone: zero areas of concern on the base. Over the course of the summer the base was able to close out two areas of concern, as well as declaring a standing IRP site "Response Complete," meaning no further action needs to take place. An AOC is a place that is suspected to be hazardous to the environment and an actual site is where the contamination has been verified through testing. "It's an important milestone to have achieved," said Mr. Connally. "Taking care of these areas has greatly reduced Fairchild's environmental liability." The environmental restoration for the military falls into two categories: the Installation Restoration Program and the Military Munitions Response Program. The two AOC's fell under the IRP and the closing of the IRP site fell under the MMRP, because it concerned the explosive ordinance disposal range. This Fairchild milestone follows in the footsteps of the prior summer in which four sites were closed out, but having no AOC's is a first. The line in the sand for the IRP is Dec. 1985, meaning that any probable or verified contamination that happened before 1985, falls under the restoration program. The base currently has 37 cleanup sites scattered across their area of responsibility; 24 that require no further action, nine Remedial Action-Operation (Remedy in Place) and four classified as other. "Our main concern is locating any areas of concern and getting a remedy in place, and were doing an excellent job at that," said Mr. Connally. According to Mr. Connally, if he's doing his job right he should eventually put himself out of work, but that would also mean that the environment and the base are in better shape. "I'm getting good at putting myself out of a job, but it's very gratifying work," said Mr. Connally. The IRP considers a site closed out when it is no longer spending remedy-in-place money on the site, but even with the ones still operating, the CES continues to look for more efficient ways to accomplish the task. "Fairchild has been doing excellent on continuing the remedies that we have in place, and continuing the effort to find ways to make them cheaper," said Mr. Connally. The Defense Priority Goals establish a fiscal year 2014 suspense to have remedies operating on all sites. Air Mobility Command has taken it a step further and has challenged there bases to reach these goals by fiscal year 2011. The path that Mr. Connally has Fairchild on should have the four remaining sites closed by the end of 2009, which would include two remedies in place by 2008, with possibly a third and the remaining site remedied in 2009. This is consistent with Col. Roger Watkins, 92nd Air Refueling Wing vice commander's environmental policy statement, which stated: "We have consistently gone beyond mere compliance with federal, state and local laws and instead insisted on maximum protection for human health, natural resources and the environment." "That'll be awesome, it will just rock to be able to beat those goals," said Mr. Connally.