The U.S. Air Force will spend $3 million to clean up harmful chemicals contaminating the Tucson aquifer near Hughes Aircraft Co., it announced yesterday.
Doubling its former financial commitment will speed up pumping efforts to slow the migration of trichloroethylene and chromium north toward Tucson's southside and central well fields.
"Action will be taken to pump contaminated groundwater to a treatment plant capable of purifying the water so it meets acceptable standards," the Air Force said in a press release from Washington, D.C.
The redesigning and replacing of pumps and pipes and other alterations at Hughes' on-site water-treatment facility to allow pumping at 450 gallons a minute will cost $1.5 million.
A $1.2 million allocation will allow the Air Force to pay for drilling 15 reclamation wells "spread strategically within the zone of contamination" to pull up foul water and treat it. The money also will pay for booster pumps and 35,000 feet of pipelines.
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Another $300,000 has been approved for designing a treatment system.
Some of the reclamation wells might be located as far north as Los Reales Road, one mile west of the Nogales Highway. Others will be on the Air Force property.
Last week negotiators from Hughes and the city, the state and the federal governments had slowed their progress toward a cleanup agreement. The Air Force representative, without approval from Washington, had not been able to promise these funds.
"Anyone who is alleging that the Air Force is not cooperating on the off-site activity, on the contrary," Charles Alford of the Aeronautic Systems Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio said yesterday in a telephone interview.
"We're putting someone on it to push the (Environmental Protection Agency) process," Alford said.
The EPA, which already has spent $500,000, is charged with compiling data gathered by its own scientists and those of the city and the Air Force to outline the extent of the pollution plume.
The U:S. Department of Defense is ready to take remedial action when the charting is complete, Alford said.
In its press release, the Air Force verified that the contamination is migrating off the plant site and already has forced the city of Tucson to shut a well next to the Hughes plant.
"The contaminants . . . were used by Hughes in its operations at the plant (and) percolated through the soil from waste treatment ponds," the Air Force said.
In Phoenix, a spokesman said Gov. Bruce Babbitt was ''highly pleased that the Air Force is doubling their efforts to get the problem solved."
"We're fortunate in this situation because we're ahead of most other states in trying to clean up," said the press officer, Jim West.
He cited funding from the Air Force and the federal and state Superfunds as three sources to solve the contamination problem.
In Washington, Rep. Morris K. Udall, D-Ariz., praised the Air Force's action as "great news."
He promised to "continue to promote cooperation between the Air Force/Hughes efforts and the previously announced EPA's Superfund cleanup plan to ensure that Tucson's groundwater pollution problems are solved."
"I know it's even better news for the citizens of Tucson, who should rest a little easier now, knowing some definitive action will be taken to clean up our water systems and wells," Udall said.
The Air Force and state health officials have said that there is no immediate danger to the public. Hughes and the city have shut their contaminated wells, and private parties who have been warned of potentially harmful amounts of industrial chemicals are not drinking their well water.
Hughes is "a key complex" in the development and production of tactical missiles for the U.S. Department of Defense. The missile projects include the Army's TOW, the Navy's Phoenix and the Air Force's AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile).