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The Installation Restoration Program (IRP) began in the early 1980’s investigating and then cleaning up source areas and groundwater
 contamination at Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC). The base was listed on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1989.The Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) assumed managerial control from the Air National Guard in 1996.Interim treatment systems were used to begin addressing many of the groundwater plumes while final decisions on how to address the contamination were ongoing. There are over 100 locations on JBCC that have beenevaluated as part of the Air Force cleanup efforts. Many of those locations were confirmed as source areas that contributed to soil and/or groundwater contamination at some point in the past and over 70 have been cleaned up. Sixty-one source areas have been delisted as Superfund sites. Several potential source areas are being investigated under the Military Munitions Response Program and for emerging contaminants which were recently added to the AFCEC program. AFCEC is addressing 18 groundwater plumes, four of which have been cleaned up as the contamination is now below applicable standards. There are nine IRP treatment systems currently treating approximately nine million gallons of  groundwater per day and those systems and the groundwater in the area of each plume are regularly monitored to verify that cleanup goals are being achieved. AFCEC owns and operates three 1.5 megawatt wind turbines that offset 100% of the power used by the treatment systems. The program continually looks at ways to optimize system operations and cleanup actions, and will be working with state and federal regulators to determine when cleanup efforts are complete and systems can be shut down.
As part of its cleanup efforts, the IRP has replaced impacted drinking water supplies located off base and connected over 1,300 homes in the area of groundwaterplumes to municipal water. In addition, the IRP conducts extensive reviews to identify and test private wells in the vicinity of the plumes. |
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