Massachusetts Military Reservation - Cleaning Up Upper Cape Cod’s Sole Source Aquifer

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CBI Practitioners:

Patrick Field

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Case Background
Since 1996, the Consensus Building Institute and Environmental Mediation Services (EMS), have assisted various parties in the cleanup of Massachusetts Military Reservation, one of the largest Superfund sites in the country. The parties include state and federal environmental and public health agencies, the U.S. Air Force, the four surrounding towns, and numerous citizens and citizen groups. With the assistance of CBI and EMS, these parties have treated 50,000 tons of soil, installed 8 treatment systems for groundwater plumes, and have completed 31% of their 2034 cleanup goal as of 2002.

Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR), a military training facility since 1911, is located on the upper western portion of Cape Cod, immediately south of the Cape Cod Canal in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It includes parts of the towns of Bourne, Mashpee, and Sandwich and abuts the town of Falmouth. MMR covers nearly 21,000 acres —approximately 30 square miles. Since the early 1990’s, over 16 groundwater plumes contaminating the Upper Cape’s sole source aquifer have been identified as well as almost 80 soil and sediment source areas. The contamination, resulting from landfills, sewage treatment plants, fuel pipelines, fire training areas, truck
motor pools, and other sources, is the result of standard practices prior to environmental legislation in the 1970s and 80s. 

In 1996, Environmental Mediation Services (EMS) was already facilitating a citizens group on base. EMS, along with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. EPA, and the Massachusetts DEP approached CBI to ask for assistance in resolving the conflict that had arisen over how to clean up one of the largest Superfund sites in the country. In the early winter of 1996, the parties concluded that the design for full containment of the groundwater contamination would adversely affect the ecosystem on the Upper Cape.

The design was deemed environmentally unacceptable. The Congressional delegation, towns, citizens, and agencies wanted to know how this unacceptable design had come about, why more resources were not available to solve this complex problem, and how to rebuild trust and move toward effective cleanup. 


CBI Approach
Throughout 1996, the mediation team held extension meetings with the interested parties to reorganize the overall decision-making process, The goal was to ensure technical review, public involvement, and interagency coordination in the decision-making process. This reorganization included the following:

  • Establishing a multi-agency, multidisciplinary, independent technical review and evaluation team (TRET) to assist the program in reviewing technical data, modeling, and the technical basis for decisions.
  • Establishing the Decision Criteria Matrix decisions process (DCM). This process included the development of a thorough decision matrix, extensive public meetings, extensive interaction with citizen advisory teams, and an iterative process of refining alternatives and options until a broad community consensus could be reached on cleanup remediation.
  • Establishing a three-tier decision-making and dispute resolution process among the agencies. (1) The remedial project managers (RPMs) from the U.S. EPA, the Massachusetts D.E.P, and the Air Force’s Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE) would have day-to-day responsibility for decisions. (2) The management review team – the managers of the RPMs from their respective agencies – would retain policy and dispute resolution authority. (3) Finally, the executive review group (ERG) would maintain final major policy decision-making as needed.

 

The Decision Criteria Matrix was an innovative approach for efficiently comparing and selecting alternatives for remediating groundwater plumes in an expedited manner. Developed cooperatively by AFCEE, EPA, and MADEP, the matrix process was designed to involve the public in selecting a plume solution that would be acceptable to the IRP, regulatory agencies, and the public. Remedial alternatives were compared using a table to more easily assess the advantages and disadvantages of each.


Outcomes
In 1997 and 1998, using the Decision Criteria Matrix process, the parties reached agreement on enforceable schedules and cleanup alternatives for four groundwater plumes —Ashumet Valley, CS-10, SD-5 South, and LF-1. Ninety-three public meetings, 13 tours, and 14 speaking engagements were conducted. CBI and EMS facilitated numerous agency meetings, citizen advisory team meetings, public meetings, and mediated final negotiations over the selection of the preferred methods of cleaning up these four plumes.

Since 1999, the cleanup program has integrated facilitation and mediation directly into its decision-making and community involvement processes. CBI and EMS have provided a range of on-going assistance. CBI facilitates the RPM meetings and citizen team meetings. Using informal agreements called “Consensus Documents” the RPMs have established a clear, coordinated set of guidelines for working together on the complex cleanup, improving upon the standard Superfund process. CBI has helped technical experts devise a protocol for sampling and analyzing cranberries for ethylene dibromide. EMS has facilitated an independent technical review team in its on-going assistance on such topics as treatment for phosphorus in ponds, fish sampling, and treatment system optimization. Lastly, CBI and EMS have helped revise and refine a handbook for agency and citizen team interaction.

Since CBI and EMS became involved in the project, the hard work of hundreds of elected officials, citizens, agency managers, employees, and contractors has transformed the MMR site from a failed cleanup attempt to an example of successful design, construction and systems operation.   

For more information on this case, please contact Managing Director Patrick Field.