Merrilee Fellows NASA Management Office/Jet Propulsion Laboratory …

Merrilee Fellows
NASA Management Office/Jet Propulsion Laboratory                     Dec. 27, 2007
(Phone: 818/393-0754)

RELEASE: 07-01 NMO

End of Year Review: 2007 Saw Significant Progress for NASA Cleanup at JPL

The year 2007 marked both significant accomplishment and progress for the NASA
environmental cleanup at and near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

City Enters Permitting Phase for Pasadena Groundwater Treatment Plant
A NASA Interim Record of Decision, approved in 2007 by federal and state regulatory
agencies, represented a major milestone for the cleanup. This approval allows the
City of Pasadena to proceed with the permitting process on a proposed 7,000
gallons-per-minute (gpm) NASA-funded groundwater treatment plant at the Windsor
Reservoir.

If permitted and then constructed, the treatment facility would be located at roughly
the mid-point of the area of groundwater chemicals originating from long-discontinued
waste management practices at JPL. The treatment plant would use a liquid-phase
granular activated carbon process to remove volatile organic compounds from the
groundwater and an ion exchange process, similar to a water softening system, to
remove perchlorate.

NASA Funding Continues for Groundwater Treatment Near Two Lincoln
Avenue Water Company Wells
Approval of NASA's Interim Record of Decision also allows continued NASA funding
of a 2,000-gpm treatment facility that has been operating in Altadena since July 2004
near two Lincoln Avenue Water Company drinking water wells at the outer edge of
the groundwater chemical plume. This facility's effectiveness bodes well for the
larger, proposed plant at Pasadena's Windsor Reservoir, because it successfully
uses the same combination of chemical-removing technologies that would be used in
Pasadena.
Source Area Groundwater Treatment Plant Reaches Full Capability
As 2007 drew to a close, expansion of the NASA source-area groundwater treatment
system located on-site at JPL was complete and the system was undergoing final
"shakedown" tests. The original system has been operating since January 2005 at a
rate of about 150 gpm, using two wells to extract groundwater from beneath JPL and
two wells to re-inject clean, treated water into the aquifer. In 2007 NASA added a
third extraction well and injection well, enabling the system to more than double the
amount of water it can treat. The plant will now operate at approximately 350 gpm
capacity, using liquid-phase granular activated carbon technology to remove volatile
organic compounds from the water and a perchlorate-removing "fluidized bed
reactor" employing a biological technology that was pilot-tested on-site and proven
for the JPL environment.

NASA Treatment Strategy Progressing to Full Execution
With treatment plants at the source area and at the outer edge ­ and soon at the
mid-point of the groundwater chemicals ­ NASA's comprehensive and aggressive
treatment strategy is now nearing full execution. The source area treatment system
is at full capacity addressing the area with the highest chemical concentrations and
ensuring that those chemicals will not move off of the JPL facility; the Lincoln Avenue
Water Company system is effectively preventing further movement of chemicals and
protecting groundwater resources to the south and east; and the proposed Pasadena
system, if implemented, would provide groundwater cleanup of the area in the
middle, roughly halfway between the source and the furthest reaches of the
chemicals.

Soil Cleanup Activities Completed at JPL
With California and federal regulatory agencies' approvals in 2007, NASA officially
completed a major soil cleanup project at JPL. About 230 pounds of carbon
tetrachloride and 30 pounds of trichloroethylene were removed from the soil directly
beneath JPL in a process called soil vapor extraction.

In cleaning up on-site soil so dramatically, NASA is meeting one of its key goals ­ the
prevention of further chemical movement into the groundwater aquifer hundreds of
feet further below the surface.
Public Outreach/Community Involvement Effort Continued in 2007
To build on community involvement with the cleanup project, NASA sponsored two
community information sessions in February 2007 and again participated in the
annual JPL Open House held in May. The community information sessions were
held on consecutive February evenings at the Maranatha High School in Pasadena
and at the Altadena Public Library and included displays defining the extent of
chemicals from JPL and the four studies conducted for that purpose. NASA also
published four fact sheets in 2007 explaining those studies. In December, NASA
changed the look of its Project Update newsletter in an effort to get more attention
and readership, by publishing a full-color, illustrated, six-page bilingual newsletter.
Throughout the year, NASA Cleanup Project Manager Steve Slaten and NASA
Manager for Community Involvement Merrilee Fellows participated in a number of
community forums, lead tours and responded to dozens of comments and questions
from the public. At the end of the year, NASA was active in notifying residents of
pipeline inspection fieldwork that would be affecting traffic flow in their neighborhood
near the site of the proposed Windsor Reservoir treatment plant.

Other NASA activities during 2007 included continuation of an extensive groundwater
monitoring effort, ongoing updates of NASA's groundwater cleanup Website ­
http://jplwater.nasa.gov ­ and the Website's "Media Room," which carries the latest
cleanup information and background materials for news reporters and others in the
media.

                  2007 NASA Environmental Cleanup Statistics

   On-site Source Area Treatment Plant ­ NASA's source area treatment plant
   has already removed ­ even before its expansion to full capacity ­ more than 850
   pounds of perchlorate and 25 pounds of volatile organic compounds from
   groundwater beneath JPL. As groundwater chemicals are removed at the source
   area, and with JPL soil cleanup activities at the source area now complete, the
   concentration of chemicals in groundwater beneath JPL has been reduced and
   the contribution of those chemicals to off-facility groundwater is thus prevented.

   Lincoln Avenue Water Company Treatment Plant ­ NASA groundwater
   monitoring wells suggest that the LAWC treatment plant, at the outer edge of the
   groundwater chemicals, is preventing those chemicals from moving any further
   from JPL. The monitoring well southeast of the treatment plant has not had any
   detections of target chemicals since treatment plant operations began in July
   2004. A total of 350 pounds of perchlorate and 109 pounds of volatile organic
   compounds (VOCs) have been removed from groundwater at the Lincoln Avenue
   Water Company (LAWC) plant since the perchlorate removal system was added
   to an existing VOC-removal system in July 2004. Since 1990, more than 500
   pounds of VOCs have been removed from groundwater at the LAWC site.
For More Information
More information about the NASA Groundwater Cleanup Project at JPL is available
on our Website http://jplwater.nasa.gov and at the NASA Information Repositories
located in the Pasadena Central Library, the La Cañada Flintridge Public Library, and
the Altadena Public Library.

For Questions and Comments
Contact:    Merrilee Fellows, NASA Manager for Community Involvement
Email:      mfellows@nasa.gov
Phone:      (818) 393-0754
Mail:       NASA Management Office
            180-801
            Jet Propulsion Laboratory
            4800 Oak Grove Drive
            Pasadena, CA 91109




For more information about NASA's Groundwater Cleanup Program at JPL, visit:

                              http://jplwater.nasa.gov


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