The Navy recently released a five-year review of an environmental restoration program at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story, finding that environmental contamination of industrial solvents and arsenic at two sites is under control.
“The Navy, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, concluded the measures are protective to human health and the environment for all who train, work, and live on-base,” a Navy spokesperson said in an email. “Similarly, there are no impacts to nearby communities or the environment from these two sites as groundwater and soil contamination is contained and restricted to the base.”
Long-term management requirements were put in place by the Navy and the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 to monitor for further contamination after chemicals were detected in the groundwater and soil at the Virginia Beach base, located near First Landing State Park. Five-year reviews are required by federal law at locations where hazardous pollutants have been detected above the recommended level. The most recent five-year review of Fort Story is the third to be completed since 2013.
The review, which ran from October 2022 to October 2023, looked for volatile organic compounds and arsenic in groundwater near an amphibious resupply cargo maintenance area and a site where the 80th Division Reserve trained.
Volatile organic compounds — such as vinyl chloride, trichloroethylene and…
