Hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee - Examining the President's Proposed Fiscal Year 2009 Budget for the Civil Works Program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Implementation of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA)

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SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Thank you very much, Madam Chairman, I appreciate your holding this hearing. I -- you know, I have been raising some issues with the Army Corps regarding TCE, trichloroethylene, which is -- chemicals contaminating the water in the city of Cheyenne, in one of the -- in the wells at Belvoir Ranch, which is west of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality believes that this contamination is directly linked to a former nuclear missile site known as Atlas 4. The cleanup is being done, the city of Cheyenne folks are paying for that now. Your department is aware of this TCE leakage from the site, but in a recent letter to me, stated that your information does not support the conclusion that the missile site is the cause of the water contamination.

The -- and it's baffling. Because the Army Corps believes that there is a 6.5 mile plume of TCE emanating from the Atlas missile site, no debate about that. The city of Cheyenne has tested their wells and found TCE 8-1/2 miles from the Atlas missile site in one of the city's wells. It only stands to reason that there is one big plume of TCE.

But the Army Corps is suggesting that there are two plumes, one that is from the missile site and one that is from an unknown source.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, the city of Cheyenne and any of us who have been to these sites cannot fathom what other cause there can be for this (TEC ?) given the terrain and the rural setting of the site. Anyone that goes out there to take a look -- and I'd be happy to go with you, would say this has to be one not some other site.

So I am glad that you're willing to work and continue to study this, but this has been going on for a long time, and it seems that there may be some ignoring of the reality of the situation. So I'll look forward to asking specific questions when it comes around to questions, Madam Chairman, of this situation, so --

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SEN. BARRASSO: Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate it.

I wanted to get if I could, back to some of the things I mentioned in my opening statement about Cheyenne, Wyoming, concerns with the water supply there. And trichloroethylene, which is a, you know, chemical that is used to clean engines, rocket, motor parts, and there is a long history of the people of Wyoming and their commitment to our military and to the missile systems which are there and in the ground.

And the concern is this plume that the people agree is there, and the folks living there think it's one related to the missile side, and the department is saying no, maybe several causes. Why does the Army Corps think that it's not all one plume? And I don't know how specifically you are familiar with the situation.

MR. WOODLEY: Well, Senator, I have no responsibility for that -- for the program that's managing that. But fortunately, the chief of engineers does. So I will ask him to -- I believe he's prepared to respond to that. But that is a formerly used defense site program which is managed as a military program within the Defense Department structure.

LT. GEN. ANTWERP: First of all, I'd say we're going to do the right thing here. There is a remedial investigation going on, and there are some difference in the values that were found in the data from the investigation that was done by the city of Cheyenne and done by the remedial -- (room noise). So we have to come to grips with that.

We're doing a feasibility study, that's under way, we have the money for that, and we will come to grips with this. I agree with you -- what are the other contributing factors if there are contributing factors to it apart from this plume that we know came from this remediation site. So we'll get to the truth on that and get back to you.

SEN. BARRASSO: The concern is -- and I appreciate your comments that we're going to do the right thing. There does seem to be needless delay in this. And I know I wrote to you back in December that concerns, because there was a letter written by the Wyoming department of environmental quality back in 2006.

Then, you know, several months later there was a meeting but not a formal letter response, and I got a letter back from one of your -- the deputy director of military programs, Joseph Tyler, dated February 8th. And he talks about -- he apologizes for that -- there wasn't a response back to the letter. And that's where I think of a needless delay.

And then he talks -- he says that there's going to be a joint agency meeting March 11, 2008, which coincidentally is today. The -- I know our -- this hearing was initially set for a month ago, and I was going to at that time ask you can you assure me that by the hearing March 11th, today, that we really do get answers to this.

So I'm -- this probably will be held after our discussion, but we are very serious in Wyoming about saying -- you know, we're not used to needless delay than -- in Wyoming we got -- like things -- like to get them done right away.

LT. GEN. ANTWERP: We owe you an answer. I believe that is being held today. We will get you the results of that, so I owe you an answer to that.

SEN. BARRASSO: Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

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