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1993-05-03
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PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
Contact: Franklin O'Donnell
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEOctober 15, 1991
A series of studies focusing on local groundwater
contamination is under way at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The studies, designed to comply with requirements under
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program,
will measure pollution that may have resulted from waste disposal
practices that were common during the 1940s and 1950s when JPL
was an Army laboratory.
Based on tests completed by the Laboratory last year,
JPL officials believe it is likely the Laboratory will be named
shortly to the EPA's National Priorities List, a roster of some
1,200 sites nationwide ranked as having the highest priority for
remediation.
In the current studies, JPL is installing groundwater
monitoring wells and conducting 30 to 40 deep soil borings to
help engineers understand the sources of pollution affecting
groundwater at the Laboratory.
After those studies are completed, JPL will weigh
various alternative solutions and propose a cleanup plan to the
EPA as well as to state and local agencies involved.
Because JPL is on federal property, it is not eligible
for EPA funding under the so-called Superfund -- the common name
for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and
Liability Act of 1980. The Laboratory's cleanup, rather, would
be paid by its present federal sponsor, NASA.
As was common and accepted practice during the 1940s
and 1950s, JPL disposed of wastes through cesspools. As sewers
became accessible to the Laboratory in the late 1950s, JPL
discontinued the use of cesspools.
Through the years, JPL policy and practices have
continued to follow federal and state procedures for waste
disposal as they became defined.
In 1986, Congress passed the Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act (SARA), requiring federal facilities to
investigate past waste management at their sites.
To comply with that act, JPL in 1990 conducted new
studies including a site inspection and installation of five
monitoring wells around JPL property.
Those studies uncovered several volatile organic
compounds -- trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE),
carbon tetrachloride (CTC) and the chemical 1,1-dichloroethene --
at levels exceeding California drinking-water standards in at
least one of the monitoring wells.
JPL forwarded those results to the EPA, which then
scored the Laboratory on the environmental agency's Hazard
Ranking System.
Based on knowledge of the ranking system, JPL officials
believe that the Laboratory is likely to be included on the nextupdate of the EPA's National Priorities List, expected to be
announced this year.
As part of the current work -- known as a remedial
investigation/feasibility study -- JPL will consider alternative
solutions and develop a cleanup plan to be proposed to the
federal EPA and the California Environmental Protection Agency.
The current study will continue through about 1993.
After a cleanup plan is approved and documented in what
is known as a record of decision, detailed engineering designs
will be drawn up and cleanup will begin.
The type of cleanup is yet to be determined, and
options may change as new technologies become available.
In conjunction with the current test program, JPL is
carrying out community relations surveys to improve communication
with local residents during the tests and cleanup.
Residents interested in receiving updates on progress
of the program are encouraged to call (818) 354-0112 or write to
Public Services Office, Mail Stop 180-205, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena CA 91109.
Operated for NASA by the California Institute of
Technology, JPL has as its primary mission exploration of the
solar system with robotic spacecraft. The Laboratory passed from
Army to NASA jurisdiction when the space agency was created in
1958.
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10-15-91 FOD
#1399