JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
The Department of the Air Force and Joint Base Andrews leaders are asking community members for input to determine if there is interest in establishing local environmental restoration advisory boards at JBA, the Brandywine Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office site, or the Davidsonville Fuel Oil Spill site.
Restoration Advisory Boards, or RABs, provide a forum for two-way communication between the community and Air Force officials about environmental work being conducted on and around the installation. The boards offer stakeholders access to the environmental restoration process and give members opportunities to review project progress and provide comments to the installation's decision makers concerning environmental restoration matters.
The Air Force Civil Engineer Center is soliciting input as part of an effort to reach into many segments of the community to ensure as many voices as possible are heard.
"For more than 80 years, military operations at Joint Base Andrews have played a major role within our shared community. We seek to discuss JBA's continuing stewardship of the local environment with our local residents. I strongly encourage participation from all residents in JBA's environmental restoration proceedings to help us all build a cleaner and more sustainable and resilient environment for our future generations," said Col. Parkin Bryson, 316th Wing vice commander.
The latest push for RAB participation and increased community input comes as Air Force officials continue to pledge their commitment to transparency in all elements of the environmental cleanup mission. Nancy Balkus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Environment, Safety, Infrastructure), affirmed this commitment Aug. 1, 2022, during testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“While the cleanup program is both legally and technically complex, its underlying purpose is simple: to address the releases attributable to the Air Force in a manner that transparently protects the American people,” she said. “We emphasize maximizing transparency, public participation, and collaboration in all our cleanup activities.”
The JBA environmental coordination team stated, JBA restoration sites include landfills, fire training areas, underground storage tanks, small arms ranges, oil water separators, storage yards, spills sites, sludge disposal areas, and disposal pits. Most of the sites have either been restored and closed or remain in the restoration or long-term management phases. In addition, a Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances remedial investigation was funded in 2022 for both JBA and the Brandywine DRMO site.
Located 8 miles south of JBA, the 8-acre Brandywine DRMO site and its groundwater continue to be monitored after completion of extensive soil and groundwater remediation of solvents, metals, pesticides and PCBs. Approximately 15 miles northeast of JBA, the Davidsonville Fuel Oil Spill site remains the only active remediation area with an array of injection wells in place to remediate remaining chlorinated hydrocarbons in the groundwater.
For more information, please see JBA's Environmental Mission as well as access to all the final restoration reports in the Administrative Record at AF Administrative Record.
The JBA Environmental team continuously works to improve our stewardship of the environment on base in harmony with the varying environments outside our fence line. We welcome the opportunity of establishing a RAB to discuss the environmental restoration projects with the residents, businesses, and others from the local communities around JBA.
The RAB assessment can be accessed in English here:
JBA Davidsonville RAB Community Interest Assessment_English
JBA and Brandywine RAB Community Interest Assessment_English
And in Spanish here:
JBA Davidsonville Consejo Asesor de Restauración Evaluación de Interés Comunitario
JBA and Brandywine Consejo Asesor de Restauración Evaluación de Interés Comunitario