Tinker View Acres

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Facility Investigation
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) reviewed the RCRA Facility Investigation Report for Site CG038 and it was approved April 2003. This document is the government's official report detailing the nature (what is found) and extent (where it is found) of the groundwater contamination in the Tinker View Acres (TVA) neighborhood. A copy has been placed in the Information Repository at the Midwest City Public Library.


Corrective Measures Study
A second document, the Corrective Measures Study (CMS), describing how the clean-up process will occur is being prepared for review by the ODEQ. This report is scheduled to be available for public comment in the Fall of 2004.

The CMS recommends using a Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) across the entire width and thickness of the plume near the Base fence line to address the groundwater plume migrating into TVA. The first iron reactive PRB was constructed in 1991; since that time, PRBs have been used extensively with very good success to remediate chlorinated solvent groundwater contamination all over the country, including the same type of solvent found in the Tinker plume. The process uses tiny iron particles that destroy contaminants in the groundwater upon contact and produces non-toxic end products. The technique of destroying contamination in-place underground is called in-situ remediation. The Tinker PRB will be installed using a new method called "azimuth controlled vertical hydraulic fracturing", which is patented by a company called GeoSierra LLC. This method eliminates the need to dig a long, deep trench to install the iron particles and therefore saves on cost, produces less waste, reduces dust and noise, and can be completed in less than half the time it takes to construct a deep trench.


Extraction Well Field Upgrade
Although the PRB is anticipated to reduce groundwater contamination at the Base fence line to meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safe drinking water standards, Tinker realized it would be sometime before the PRB could be completed. In November of 2002, Tinker upgraded pumps in existing extraction wells in an attempt to capture more of the groundwater contamination. Pumping results have shown that nearly twice as much groundwater is now being pumped out of the extraction well system. Several wells in place between the Base fence line and the projected location of the PRB will remain in place as a backup system even after the PRB is constructed until it can be verified that the PRB is performing as expected.


Monitoring Well and Private Well Sampling
Sampling continues on a regular basis. Results will continue to be briefed at Community Advisory Board meetings and reports placed in the Information Repository at the Midwest City Public Library. Sampling in 2003 showed that all of the seven monitoring wells placed in the TVA neighborhood were not contaminated. Of the nineteen private water wells sampled in 2003, none were contaminated.