Groups Complete Work on Airport Site Treatment
Federal, state,
and city officials on Jan. 24 celebrated the completion of the $1
million Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North groundwater treatment facility,
which benefits approximately 140,000 residents in Goodyear, Avondale,
and Litchfield Park, in the southwest valley of Phoenix, Ariz.
The new facility was constructed as part of the Phoenix-Goodyear
Airport Superfund site cleanup. The facility was built and is operated
by Crane Co., the responsible party for the site, pursuant to a 2006
Consent Decree between Crane Co. and the United States.
Joining the event are Keith Takata, U.S. EPA; Steve Owens, Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ); Goodyear Mayor James
Cavanaugh; Avondale Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers; Litchfield Park Mayor
Thomas Schoaf, and Crane Co. representative Curt Cramer.
"With this expansion in cleanup capabilities, the Phoenix-Goodyear
Airport North groundwater treatment facility demonstrates our ongoing
commitment to reducing risks to human health and the environment in
this growing community," said Takata, director of the EPA’s Pacific
Southwest region’s Superfund program. "We recognize the important
contributions of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and
the City of Goodyear, in particular, in expediting construction and
startup of the new system."
ADEQ Director Owens said, “This plant represents an important next step
in cleaning up and protecting the precious groundwater resources in
this area. We still have a long way to go but this plant will help
provide useable water for irrigation and other purposes.”
Highlights of the new Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North EA-06 system include:
• 500 million gallons of groundwater will be treated annually, removing approximately 140 pounds of trichloroethene (TCE);
• The installation of one new groundwater extraction well;
• Two granular activated carbon vessels to remove TCE;
• Expected flow of groundwater treatment at 1,000 gallons per minute (gpm);
• No air emissions;
• Piping of treated water to a local canal, where it will be blended with other waters and used for irrigation.
In 1983, EPA listed the Litchfield Airport Area as a Superfund site.
After subsequent sampling showed two separate contamination sources and
different responsible parties, the site was divided into the
Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North and South sites.
From 1963 to
1994, Unidynamics-Phoenix, Inc. manufactured defense and aerospace
component systems at its Goodyear facility. These activities resulted
in releases of hazardous substances, including TCE and perchlorate.
Following investigation throughout the late 1980s, in 1989 EPA selected
the site remedy to clean up soil and groundwater contamination. As the
current owner of the Unidynamics-Phoenix, Inc. facility, Crane Co. is
conducting the remedy and supplemental investigation of the site.
Since 1994, Crane Co. has been treating contaminated groundwater at the
Phoenix-Goodyear Airport North using the Main Treatment System and the
Well 33A System, treating more than 5 billion gallons of groundwater,
removing nearly 40,000 pounds of TCE.
For more information, visit: www.epa.gov.