TOP STORY > >Base getting the lead out

By Staff Sgt. Jacob Barreiro
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

Nearly 15 acres of the base, previously used as a skeet range in the 1960s, is an ecologically safer place today because of a $2.7 million restoration project that excavated 36 million pounds of contaminated soil, or enough to fill 450 semi-trucks, and replaced it with more than 3,000 trees and recycled soil and mulch.

There was cause for concern when a site-wide investigation of Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., revealed that the soil in the former base skeet range had high levels of lead contamination. People are susceptible to lead contamination through air, water, soil and retail products. Prolonged exposure to lead can lead to toxicity in the heart, nerves, kidneys and reproductive systems, which can lead to physical ailments such as headaches, nausea and seizures or even death.

The base’s environmental restoration office was able to respond to the contamination hazard with a project that would not only remove the contaminated soil, but replenish the damaged earth with trees and provide a better environment for base wildlife and people on the base in the process.

“The contaminated area was an old shooting range used in the 60s and 70s,” said Terry Broach, base interim restoration manager. “A study showed extreme levels of lead in the soil; we had to get the lead out. So we executed this plan of soil removal and tree restoration.”

The restoration began in September 2010, and is scheduled to be completed later this month, said Kelly Stater, restoration project manager.

“We started the project last year,” said Stater. “We removed the lead soil in June. In all, we ended up clearing more than 18,000 tons of contaminated soil.”

Stater said the contaminated soil posed not only a health risk to humans, but could adversely affect the ecological balance of the base. The lead contamination could have been potentially detrimental to animals as well.

“The damage to the wildlife would affect people too,” said Stater. “For example, the lead damages the soil and plants, the deer eat the plants, and people eat deer. Removing the soil was a plus for all of us.”

In place of the removed 18,000 tons of soil was a bare patch of earth ensconced by a vertical tower of trees from all ends, accessible by a small gravel-paved road divergent from the base’s main concrete pathways. Stater said the area encompasses approximately 15 acres of land. Land that was empty after the soil removal.

“Fortunate for us, this base is very proactive when it comes to ecological restoration,” said Broach, a career environmentalist.

She said the base has mandats through consent orders, which expedites the completion of restoration projects.

After excavating the enormous amounts of contaminated soil, the workers put down recycled mulch in anticipation of planting trees in the vacant, newly cleansed soil, said Stater. The project was worked by an average of six contracted employees a day for more than a year, focusing on cleansing and replenishing the 15 acres of land.

“In all, we will have planted about 3,000 trees by the time the project’s complete,” the project manager said. “In the last two days we’ve planted about 1,500.”

The freshly planted trees are runts at the moment, said Stater. They only stand about five feet tall and are thin in circumference, but he anticipates 90 percent of them surviving into maturity.

“The recycled mulch retains a lot of water and prevents erosion,” he said.

Broach said that the re-planting took some time due to weather and seasonal concerns in Arkansas, but the project is looking like a success, for people on the base and the base’s wildlife.

“It took some time because we had to figure out what trees would thrive in the spot,” said the restoration manager. “We had to find out what will grow well, and there ended up being 11 different species of trees planted.”

The project site stands now not as a vacant spot of land with harmful contaminants in its soil, but a pasture with tree sprouts speckled throughout. Stater said the grown trees will be beneficial to the base.

“The base can sell some of the trees when they get bigger,” he said. “That will produce some revenue.”

Yet future revenue is only a boon to what the project has already accomplished, said Stater.

“The guys at the shooting range said that the quail over there have come back,” the project manager said. “They said that the quail hadn’t been there for a while.”

Broach said green projects like this are beneficial to everyone in the area.

“You talk about a green project, it (doesn’t) get (any) greener than this,” Said Stater, pointing at the vast landscape of newly planted trees and their enormous elders behind them. “We removed something potentially harmful and replaced it with something positive, and that benefits everyone. This is what restoration is all about.”