MACHIASPORT, Maine — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection are hosting a meeting Monday night to discuss water supply alternatives for affected landowners at Howard Mountain and Miller Mountain in Machiasport.
Both areas have been designated as contaminated sites by the DEP and Army Corps, and cleanup and remediation have been under way for more than 14 years.
Project manager Robert Leitch of the Army Corps explained Friday that there are two separate locations about a mile apart where Air Force radar equipment is located.
“During the Cold War, the equipment was used to detect any attack by the Soviet Union,” Leitch said. The Air Force began phasing out its presence there in the late 1970s, but at one time, 125 active-duty Air Force personnel were stationed at the site.
It once was known as the 907th Radar Squadron, then later as the Bucks Harbor Joint Surveillance Site. The Air Force ceased its operations at the facility in October 1988.
In 1994, at the bottom of a valley on the east side of the mountain, the Army Corps and its contractors excavated 27 fuel tanks that supplied homes in the former base housing compound. Some of the 42-year-old tanks contaminated the ground beside and under the wooden houses. Traces of the fuel seeped into wells in Machias-port and the village of Bucks Harbor, contaminating them with a multi-ingredient chemical stew.
The DEP identified 11 different contaminants associated with the former radar station. The chemicals detected included fuel oil, lead and trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent.
While in operation, Leitch said, the highly technical electronic gear at the radar site was cleaned with trichloroethylene, or TCE, which is now a known carcinogenic.
“The protocols then were not the same as today,” Leitch said. “We can only guess that the waste was disposed of by pouring it down the drain, into the septic tanks or out the back door.”
Testing discovered 15 area wells had been contaminated. Charcoal filters were installed in affected residences until the state and federal agencies could ascertain the scope of the problem.
“It has been difficult to determine the extent of the contamination,” Leitch said, adding that the solvent spread through fractured bedrock on both mountaintops.
The Army Corps has continued to monitor existing homeowners’ wells in the area, as well as having separate monitoring wells.
Leitch said an original plan to provide an alternative water supply to the affected homeowners included a provision that they not use the contaminated wells. Landowners rejected that plan.
“We were afraid that by using the water to feed livestock, water their lawns or whatever, they were putting the contaminated water right back into the bedrock,” Leitch said. “They objected, though, saying the land and water were theirs, and they should be able to do whatever they want on their properties.”
About a year ago, however, several of the landowners contacted the Army Corps and asked to reopen the possibility of an alternative water supply.
“Our process, although painfully long, is to set up the meeting to look at that option once again,” he said.
The public meeting is set for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, at the town hall on Route 92.