LAKEHURST, NJ - - In May, the Air Force completed the final shipments of plutonium-contaminated soil from the site of a 1960 nuclear missile silo fire. Cleanup of the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (BOMARC) facility has been ongoing for the past two years and is now nearing completion.

The shipments (almost 22,000 cubic yards of soil) have been traversing through Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst in sealed containers via truck and then loaded onto rail cars on the base for transfer to a disposal site in Utah, according to CAPT Mark Bathrick, Commanding Officer at Navy Lakehurst.

Contractors built a special road to the rail site on Lakehurst for transport of the soil.

“We worked with the Air Force to insure that the contaminated soil was transported only on federal land through Fort Dix and Lakehurst in an effort to avoid any possible contact with the public, “ stated Bathrick. “We wanted to make sure that the transfer was done with the utmost safety and least impact to the surrounding community. I believe our efforts were completely successful,” continued Bathrick.

The 75-acre BOMARC site is on Fort Dix and owned by the Army, but leased to the Air Force for over 40 years. The site housed 84 nuclear missiles at one time, but was closed by the Air Force in 1972.

After the fire, the Air Force covered the contaminated section of the facility with a concrete and asphalt cap to contain the plutonium. The site has been closed to the public and monitored since that time.

Said Bathrick, “the cooperative efforts among the Army, Navy and Air Force on projects such as this is due in large to the unique joint agreement that exists among the three central New Jersey military bases. The Navy Lakehurst-Fort Dix-McGuire Air Force Base Joint Installation Partnership (the first of its kind agreement in DoD) sets the example for future cross-service alliances.”