Despite objections from the American Samoa Power Authority and a federal agency, the US Army Corps of Engineer has decided to take “No Action on the Proposed Aua Pipeline” project over which Aua residents and ASPA had raised concerns about soil contaminated with fuel that then becomes a health risk.

The U.S. Navy operated the Fuel Farm in Aua Village, during Wold War II to store and supply diesel fuel for the U.S. Navy. Although the fuel farm was dismantled after the war, residents reported the presence of subsurface petroleum contamination at numerous locations within the village, according to background information in the Army Corps’ “Aua Fuel Farm Pipeline Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study” fact sheet released early this year.

lt was determined that the fuel pipeline within the village limits had previously been removed; however, no investigations of the pipeline outside the village of Aua was performed, according the Army Corps, which also says that in 2012 a Site Investigation (Sl) was completed to assess the area between the villages of Aua and Atuu for the presence of petroleum in soil potentially associated with the former pipeline.

Based on the 2012 results, the Army Corps carried out a Remedial Investigation in order to:

• adequately characterize soil and groundwater in three investigative areas (Site A, B, C) in the vicinity of the former fuel pipeline

• perform a human health risk assessment to guide risk management decisions

• prepare a Remedial Investigation Report, a Proposed Plan and a Decision Document.

In Site A, petroleum hydrocarbons were detected in soil and groundwater; however the source of these detections are likely associated with surface runoff from Highway 1 and not the fuel pipeline, according to the Army Corps.

At Site B, evidence of petroleum contamination, including free product, was identified at two soil-boring locations and one monitoring well location.

However, the investigation concluded that surface soil contamination is most likely associated with runoff from Highway 1. However, subsurface contamination in B is likely related to the former fuel farm pipeline.

A similar conclusion was reached for Site C, according to the investigation, which also states that a human health risk assessment was performed to evaluate potential risk to human health to the following receptors — residents, visitors, industrial site workers, and future construction workers.

The investigation found that the risk assessment determined that there was no human health risk to receptors in A, B, and C. Additionally, the Final Remedial Investigation report “concluded the residual petroleum contamination in soil and groundwater at the project site does not pose a risk to human health and recommended no further action (NFA).”

PUBLIC COMMENTS

ASPA executive director Utu Abe Malae and US Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 Infrastructure Section manager Douglas E. Eberhardt submitted separate comment letters, with Utu saying in a May 26 letter that this “matter is of grave concern to ASPA and the people of American Samoa and we object” to the Army Corps recommendation of “No Further Action.”

Utu said the US Department of Defense (DOD) infrastructure which included both the Aua fuel farm pipeline, stretching from Aua to the Atuu, and the fuel farm itself, encompassing the majority of Aua, has left behind environmental contaminants which will burden the people and the Government of American Samoa.”

In his June 8 letter, Eberhardt asked the Army Corp to reconsider its “No Further Action” recommendation, arguing that petroleum contamination along the Aua pipeline and in Aua represents a “direct risk and impact to human health and imposes undue financial burdens now and in the future on the undeserved, low-income communities on Tutuila” island.

Two weeks ago, Utu was informed by Army Corps that this matter is closed since there’s no risk to human health.

See Monday’s Samoa News edition on Utu’s response and other details on this matter, which will be costly to American Samoa as ASPA moves forward with extending and upgrading its electric, water and wastewater infrastructure in the Bay Area — which includes Aua village.