During a public meeting at the Fessenden Center in Buxton, North Carolina, Nov. 4, 2024, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, invited the attendees to take a survey to gauge interest in establishing a Restoration Advisory Board for the Buxton Naval Facility, a Formerly Used Defense Sites property located within Cape Hatteras National Seashore of North Carolina. To take the public interest survey, visit RAB Survey. The deadline for submission is Dec. 4, 2024.
During the meeting, the Savannah District’s commander and FUDS team provided a brief overview about the ongoing response actions at the FUDS property and a presentation about establishing a RAB to approximately 60 community attendees. After the presentation, the open house began, offering the attendees an opportunity to meet the District’s team and other agency representatives to discuss the FUDS property, a RAB and actions taken by the other agencies at the property. To see the RAB presentation, with a voiceover, visit: Public Meeting Presentation
In short, a RAB is a stakeholder advisory group that meets regularly to discuss environmental restoration at DoD sites, such as the Buxton Naval Facility FUDS property. These meetings are designed to bring the community together, in a more formal and structured manner than a typical public meeting, to enable exchange of restoration information between regulatory agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers and interested community members. While RAB members can influence the cleanup decisions through discussions of ideas, concerns, questions, and providing direct feedback to the Corps of Engineers and regulatory agencies, they are not a decision-making group.
Per the RAB Handbook, to establish a RAB, 50 local community members need to petition for a RAB, or a local state representative requests it or the District commander determines there is a need. One tool the Savannah District is using to gauge interest, is a survey. If it is determined a RAB will be established, then the Army Corps of Engineers will select co-chairs, one from within USACE and one from the community. The USACE co-chair will create a RAB selection panel from the regulatory community and key local government officials to nominate a diverse group of individuals from the community for RAB membership. To learn more about establishing a RAB, visit: RAB Handbook.
To recap, the former Buxton Naval Facility encompasses approximately 50 acres the U.S. Navy used as a submarine monitoring station from February 1956 until June of 1982. Since 1989, the Army Corps of Engineers has performed various environmental restoration projects at the property and monitoring groundwater, primarily where the Navy had underground and above ground petroleum storage tanks. To learn about the projects at the Buxton Naval Facility FUDS property, visit: Buxton Naval Facility.
As for the current response actions associated with petroleum, from September 2023 to August 2024, reports of petroleum, sheen, and odors at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore FUDS property were sporadic. The Savannah District sent teams to the FUDS property in September, October, November, and December 2023, as well as February, May, and June 2024, to collect soil samples, perform borings, dig test pits, take air samples, excavate soil to investigate the potential presence of an underground tank, remove a suspect pipe, perform geophysical work, and inspect beach conditions.
After a significant erosion event in September 2024, that produced petroleum sheens on the beach, the Savannah District team took immediate action and quickly assessed the situation, developed a two-phase response plan, and effectively initiated the ongoing phased response actions.
As part of the first phase, a Corps of Engineers team arrived on-site Sept. 11, 2024, to mitigate any petroleum release into the ocean and performed a test pit investigation to better define the extent of petroleum-impacted soil. While the team was on-site, no active petroleum releases were identified. The second phase is currently ongoing and involves identifying and removing petroleum-impacted soil in the subsurface and performing confirmatory soil sampling in areas along the beach and dunes.
While the primary purpose of the ongoing response action is to remove petroleum-impacted soil, some of the remnant infrastructures that impede excavation access to the petroleum-impacted soil have been removed, too. The team began excavations Oct. 2, 2024, and so far, they have removed 1,442 cubic yards and 24,126 gallons of petroleum-impacted soil and water, as well as approximately 138,400 pounds of concrete, 1,153 feet of pipes and 1,088 feet of metal cables and wires.
