Zahava Busse Madeleine Weitzner Period.7/Mr.Vinlove Lowry Air Force Base Zahava Busse Madeleine Weitzner Period.7/Mr.Vinlove

Site Location Lowry Air Force is located in Denver, Colorado and includes the Lowry Community, as well as the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. It has an elevation of 1,641 meters, or 5,384 feet. Degrees Minutes Seconds: Latitude: 39-43'23'' N Longitude: 104-53'31'' W

History of Site The Lowry Air Force Base and United States Air Force Academy used to be where the Logan School for Creative learning is currently located along with the Lowry Community. Lowry Air Force Base was the training site of the bomber crew during World War Two. Post World War Two, the Lowry Air Force Base developed their training facilities during the Korean war. From 1952-55, Lowry served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s summer White House. After the Cold War had been fought, on September 30, 1994, Lowry Air Force base closed.

Hazardous Materials In Ground water traces of Trichloro- ethylene were found about 1,260 parts per billion. Traces of ethene, ethane, and methane have been found in the land registered to the Lowry air force base An estimated potential loss of 13 to 14 percent per year of construction work lost due to carbonate and hydroxide precipitate formation.

Possible Effects of Pollution From 1948-1986, Operable Unit 2, the Landfill zone (74.5 acre piece of land south central of Lowry) was used to dump waste and construction debris. When waste was disposed, it was put in isolated trenches and then covered up with soil. Additionally, a coal steam plant powered heating for the Navy, and machines were cleaned with solvents. Gas and chemicals were stocked up and supported the training, and when disposing of those liquids, they used standard waste-disposal systems of the day.  Most of these behaviors resulted in environmental damage such as water and soil contamination.

Cleanup Efforts The Lowry Air Force Base is using a series of subsurface walls with iron filings known as Air Stripping through which the pollution contamination migrates under the natural ground-water flow. During Air stripping, a full-scale technology, powerful organics are taken from ground water by greatly increasing the surface area of the contaminated water exposed to air. Types of ground water pollution reversal methods include packed towers, diffused aeration, tray aeration, and spray aeration. Air stripping involves the mass transfer of volatile contaminants from water to air. The eventual duration of cleanup using an air stripping system may be tens of years and depends on the capture of the entire plume from the ground water.

Limitations of Air Stripping A pretreatment is needed in order to rid the pollutants. Air Strpping is only effective for contaminated water with higher concentrations of the Trichloro- ethylene . The process energy costs are high. Compounds with low volatility at ambient temperature may require preheating of the ground water.

Sources Pike, John. "Lowry Air Force Base." Global Security Military. Global security, 25 004 2005. Web. 29 Aug 2010. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lowry.htm "PHYSICAL/CHEMICAL TREATMENT FOR GROUND WATER, SURFACE WATER, AND LEACHATE ." Innovative Treatment Technologies: Annual Status Report (EPA). Environmental Protection Agency, Nov. 1996. Web. 29 Aug 2010. http://www.frtr.gov/matrix2/section3/table3_13_nfr.html "Air and Water Treatment ." Air Stripping. Environmental Protection Agency, Nov. 1996. Web. 29 Aug 2010. <http://www.frtr.gov/matrix2/section4/4-46.html>. Elliott, M.G. and E.G. Marchand, 1990. "USAF Air Stripping and Emissions Control Research," in Proceedings of the 14th Annual Army Environmental Symposium, USATHAMA Report CETHA-TE-TR-90055. Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable, 1995. Remediation Case Studies: Groundwater Treatment, EPA/542/R-95/003.