Geophysicists and ordnance experts with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers are using a technology to clear former artillery range at Joint Base Cape Cod, Mass.
The Corps is using a technology system called the Metal Mapper to identify and remove munitions from the site after the Environmental Protection Agency ordered the cleanup to protect local drinking water.
Joint Base Cape Cod sits on a sole-source aquifer, the sole source for drinking water for the installation as well as the Massachusetts's upper cape towns of Borne, Falmouth, Ashby and Sandwich.
After using conventional detection devices to detect and map subsurface anomalies, Elise Goggin, project geophysicist , said the Metal Mapper is used to conduct a "cued" investigation.
"We basically look at a screen. On that screen we have loaded in all the points we need to sit the machine on top of," Goggin said. "So we navigate to those points, set down the array, and sit there for about a minute so it can collect the data."
She said after the Metal Mapper is placed above each anomaly, it transmits electromagnetic signals in three dimensions, and it then records the return electromagnetic signals in three dimensions.
Goggins, who works at Huntsville Center's Engineering Directorate Geosciences Branch, then uses those signals to determine the shape and other characteristics of each item, and compare the collected data against signals documented in a "library" of known munitions and compile a "dig list." Then unexploded ordnance technicians excavate all anomalies labeled likely or uncertain ordnance by the geophysicist.
Goggin said there are around 30 acres that need to be investigated.
"Right now we have completely finished around eight acres and we are hoping to complete the rest by 2015. It was an impact area for over 60 years, so there is a lot of stuff out there and the current project goal is to remove 75-95 percent of the munitions containing explosives," she said.
Ben Gregson, Remediation Manager Groundwater Study Program said the Metal Mapper is the best technology they have found to meet thier installation's needs and requirements. Gregson said not only is the system is helping preserve the drinking water for area, it also keeping down the costs of cleaning up the site. Much of the effort and expense at a typical munitions response site is expended on the wasteful excavation of objects such as nails, pieces of barbed wire, as well as "frag," metal from exploded ordnance.
"The metal mapper allows them to discriminate with higher fidelity and identify what's in the ground," said Lt. Col. Shawn Cody, Program Manager, Army National Guard impact area groundwater study program. "We are anticipating reducing our digs by up to 70 percent which is a huge cost-savings."
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