The Fuel Spill-12 (FS-12) groundwater plume was formed by a release in a now abandoned fuel pipeline that ran across the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR). The pipeline carried both jet fuel and aviation gasoline during its use from 1965 to 1973. A release of an estimated 70,000 gallons of aviation gas was reported to have occurred in 1972; however, the contamination was not discovered until 1990. By 1996, the release had created a fuel-contaminated groundwater plume that migrated off base and under private property. The remedial objectives for plume treatment included restoring the aquifer to drinking water standards. An air sparing/soil vapor extraction system was operated from October 1995 to February 1998 to remediate the source area and an extraction, treatment, and reinjection (ETR) system was installed in 1997 to remediate the groundwater. The ETR system was designed to treat contaminated groundwater at 762 gallons per minute (gpm) using granular activated carbon (GAC) and consisted of 25 extraction wells and 23 reinjection wells. In September 1999, an area of groundwater contaminated with ethylene dibromide (EDB) was discovered underneath an adjacent pond, outside of the identified FS-12 plume and capture zone. The existing ETR system was modified to address this contamination by (1) decreasing reinjection stress along the pond shoreline, (2) modifying flow rates to slow the contaminant migration, and (3) converting a reinjection well into an extraction well to capture the newly discovered contamination. Since the pond is considered a sensitive ecosystem, these modifications required expedited schedules and extensive public interaction. The Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE) worked with the regulatory agencies through several public meetings to obtain consensus on the revised ETR system, which was achieved by December 2000. The modified ETR system began operation in June 2001, with current data showing successful capture.
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