ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: Nov 1, 2011 and Updated Jul 1, 2012
By Tim Damos, News Republic
State regulators temporarily have withdrawn a requirement that the military expand soil testing at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo.
The decision allows the Army and its contractor to exclude certain forms of a toxic chemical known as DNT – once used to make explosives at the former weapons plant – from future soil tests. The Army currently tests for two of the six forms, or isomers, of DNT that were predominantly used in manufacturing.
Officials with the state Department of Natural Resources ordered the Army to include the additional four isomers in future tests in a September letter to a Badger official. But the Army refused to follow through with the order, saying the DNR lacked the legal authority to require more stringent soil sampling.
DNR Remediation and Redevelopment Team Supervisor Linda Hanefeld wrote Monday in a letter to the Army that the state will postpone the requirement because it recently learned of a federal initiative to examine the merits of the additional testing at cleanup sites nationwide.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Federal Facilities Forum – a group comprised of project managers from federal sites throughout the country – has discussed the additional testing in its monthly conference calls, Hanefeld stated.
“DNR will defer any further action on this matter until after the deliberations by the Federal Facilities Forum* have been completed,” stated Linda Hanefeld, a DNR remediation and redevelopment team supervisor.
But a representative of the Federal Facilities Forum said it’s not clear why state regulators would defer to the federal process.
“They have the authority,” said EPA Environmental Engineer Richard Mayer, who also serves as co-chair of the Federal Facilities Forum. “If they want to make a technical judgment to require that additional testing, the state can do that. They can be more stringent than the federal government.”
A scientist, Peter deFur, who was contracted by a citizen group, has warned that the four isomers that made up only about 5 percent of what was used in manufacturing may be more toxic than the other two isomers. That’s because the less prevalent isomers appear to take longer to break down in the environment.
Earlier this year, Wisconsin became the first state to adopt groundwater standards that require the sum total of all six isomers to be lower than 0.05 micrograms per liter. A local environmental group, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, petitioned the DNR to mandate that the Army incorporate all six forms of the chemical in soil tests.
“This comes down to science vs. politics,” said CSWAB Executive Director Laura Olah. “Science says you go out there and do the testing.”
Olah said the additional testing could help the Army get a better picture of where groundwater plumes of DNT have originated.
DNR Drinking Water and Ground Water Supervisor Eileen Peirce said the Army has removed contaminated soil that has been found and installed a cap on one problem area. She said the old testing method still should allow the Army to continue to spot and remove soil contaminated with all DNT isomers.
“You would not expect to find the other four isomers without the first two,” she said.
Olah said that is an assumption because the soil has not been tested for the additional isomers.
Badger Army Ammunition Plant Commander’s Representative Joan Kenney said the DNR’s initial order would also have required the Army to establish its own standards for the additional DNT isomers in soil.
“It’s difficult unless you have a standard of comparison,” Kenney said. “How do we set up a standard?”
She said the additional testing also would have required an additional cost to taxpayers without a clear benefit.
CSWAB Petition to WDNR DNT Isomers Soil and Sediment Testing 2011
DNT Groundwater Exceedances All 6 Isomers Summary Badger Army Nov 2020
Badger Army All 6 DNT Isomers Monitoring and Residential Well Data May 2021
ORIGINAL TITLE OF THIS NEWS ARTICLE: DNR Backs Away from Stricter Soil Testing
*NOTE: The Federal Facilities Forum recommendations were never published, EPA confirmed this week.