dt96                               DESC                               02/18/96 ================================================================================                              DAYTON DAILY NEWS                   Copyright (c) 1996, Dayton Newspapers Inc.DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996              TAG: 9602200197EDITION: CITY           SECTION: NEWS        PAGE: 1B TYPE: CENTERPIECE SOURCE: By Katherine Ullmer DAYTON DAILY NEWS                              DESC CLEANUP STARTS                     FEDERAL PRICE TAG PUT AT $6 MILLION   The Department of Defense is in the midst of a $6 to $8 million environmental cleanup at DESC to determine how much of a health risk contaminants such as asbestos, lead and PCBs might pose to neighboring residents.   The actual cost to rid the Defense Electronics Supply Center of toxic materials is an estimate based on "historically what it has taken other bases to clean up," said Paul Rizzo, DESC site manager for the Air Force Base Conversion Agency. Rizzo is part of a team formed to help Gentile Air Force Station, home of DESC, convert from a military installation to civilian use.   A report on the contamination sites won't be ready until May. But preliminary findings indicate the 164-acre Kettering campus contains leaking landfills, possible lead contamination from bullets embedded in soil and groundwater contamination from vinyl chloride, a carcinogen. Possible contamination from hydraulic fluid and low-level radioactive waste is also being investigated.   The base, which was an airfield in the 1920s and became the Dayton Signal Corps Supply Agency in 1944  and DESC in 1962, will close at the end of December. As part of the military's 1993 base closure and realignment decisions, DESC will merge  with a supply center in Columbus, taking about 1,440 jobs with it. Some 150 have already left for Columbus, leaving about 1,300 employees. Of these, one third will move in April, another third in May and the final third in June.   The city of Kettering is negotiating to buy 140 acres for an office/light industrial park called the Kettering Business Park. The city plans to spend anestimated $31 million to renovate buildings and infrastructure. Currently a handful of tenants lease space for the short term.   Eventually the city plans to sell the buildings. Twenty-three older structures will be demolished, some to create 3,000 parking spaces. The military will keep the remaining 24 acres for limited government operations.   But the site must be environmentally clean before it can be transferred to Kettering.   "From what we can tell most of the contamination is pretty well isolated tothe southern part of the site,"  Al Fullenkamp, DESC re-use coordinator for Kettering, said. "The buildings, as far as we know, are relatively clean."   For the past two years, crews hired by the Air Force have been taking soil and air samples, drilling test wells and searching through historical records to determine what has been disposed of, stored, dumped, spilled, used, or buried there. Investigators believe most of the pollutants were disposed of inthe early 1950s. Some spills and leaks may be more current.   So far, the list of contaminated sites contains nine known and 29 potentially contaminated sites. The main verified site is a 1.5-acre soil-covered landfill in the southern part of Gentile Station that could include paint thinner, asbestos and electronic parts deposited from 1950-55.   "There were some solvents that showed up in the ground water there," said Laura Ripley, remedial project manager for the U.S. EPA.   The landfill is adjacent to the west branch of the Little Beaver Creek, which flows west to east through the site and then into the Little Miami River. Ripley said officials need to determine if ground water under the landfill seeped into the creek. They intend to collect more samples to determine the pathway of the contaminated water.   "In the '40s and '50s they didn't have landfills that had a protective ================================================================================ 1 of 39, 4 Terms                                                     Pg 1 of 2  dt96                               DESC                               02/18/96 ================================================================================liner," Ripley said.   Bonnie Buthker of the Ohio EPA said vinyl chloride is one of the solvents found in ground water at the site. Vinyl chloride is sometimes caused when paint thinners and other solvents break down.   The Kettering well field is not near the area and "there aren't any privatewells in the area where it could impact," so there doesn't appear to be any immediate health threat, she said.   Also of concern are:   *Two low-level radioactive areas at the south end of the station, one just north of the west branch of the Little Beaver Creek, and one underneath the softball diamond near Madison Street. Both of these contain an unknown number of electron tubes (containing radium) under about 10 feet of soil. But Ripley said investigators have not been able to locate them.   Fullenkamp said these areas would probably have minimal value for potentialdevelopment other than as parking lots, because of their radiation stigma.   *Two coal storage areas, one along the western boundary and one in the southern portion of the station.  At both sites, waste oils, solvents and paint thinners were poured over coal prior to incineration to keep down the coal dust. Ground water and soil contamination are being checked, said Steve Thompson, an environmental coordinator at Gentile.   In other parts of DESC, potential contamination ranges from asbestos to PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyl from transformers.   Despite the number and types of contaminants, Rizzo said the base is relatively clean compared to bases like Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, which is on the U.S. EPA Superfund National Priority List for cleanup. Gentile does not qualify for money from the federal government's Superfund, set up in 1980 as a trust fund with contributions from companies that generate hazardous waste, because it did not have heavy fuel use and industrial manufacturing, Rizzo said.   DESC was used as a storage site for electronic parts, "so there's very little problem with hazardous waste," Rizzo said.   The investigation and cleanup, paid for with Base Realignment and Closure money, has already cost more than $2 million.   Most of the money spent has paid for the investigation done by URS Consultants, a national planning, engineering and architectural services firm which specializes in hazardous waste investigation and remedial work. The cleanup is expected to continue at least through fiscal year 1998, Thompson said.   Beth Offenbaker, spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency in Fort Belvoir, Va., said project funding is on track. The agency is the parent organization of DESC and is managing the cleanup.   The agency has removed 14 fuel storage tanks and 23 or 24 transformers containing PCBs in the past several years,Thompson said. Only two PCB transformers remain and they are set for removal this spring, he said.LENGTH: Long  :  119 LINESILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS: (2):          (#1) Contamination probe: Preliminary findings indicate the 164-acre          DESC site contains leaking landfills, possible lead contamination           and groundwater contamination, which could affect development.          CREDIT: DAYTON DAILY NEWS          (#2) (Graph) DESC campus          CREDIT: DANIELLE DRISCOLL/DAYTON DAILY NEWSSUBJ: ENVIRONMENT   HEALTH HAZARD   CLEANUP NA: DEFENSE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CENTER   DESC ENHANCER: REF1================================================================================ 1 of 39, 4 Terms                                                     Pg 2 of 2 Transfer complete. Press [RETURN] to return to Menu: