Meeting on cleanup near Patrick Space Force Base reset for Feb. 16

Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be available Thursday, Feb. 16 at Pelican Beach Park Club House in Satellite Beach to discuss the status of an environmental investigation and pending cleanup of former defense sites just south of Patrick Space Force Base, a military mess that has raised fears of health risks for decades.

The meeting had been originally scheduled for November but was scrapped because of Tropical Storm Nicole.

The Corps plans to move forward with investigations and cleanups, where property owners have signed "rights-of-entry" to test for groundwater and/or soil contamination.

More than 300 homes lie within the 52-acre area south of Patrick Space Force Base targeted for cleanup. Some residents fear what dangers a shovel might one day find in their yards, from airplane parts to unexploded ordinance and drums of unknown chemicals. While nobody's been injured from an explosion yet, concerns are real.

The agency plans to probe South Patrick Shores yards for any dangerous debris or chemicals left behind before, during and after World War II. Workers will drive in mini-excavators, grab soil samples by hand, use ground-penetrating radar to survey for metals. If soil or groundwater samples raise suspicions, workers will place small canisters inside homes to test for vapors that might be entering the house from underground.

The Corps plans to conduct a soil-vapor-intrusion study of willing South Patrick homeowners' houses, in instances where soil or groundwater contamination is found. But not all residents are on board yet for the invasive tests.

Thus far, at least 182 of 317 eligible homeowners (50%) have signed "right-of-entry" forms to allow the Corps on their property to sample for soil and air contamination. In January, Brevard Public Schools also decided to allow the Corps entry to look for contamination on the grounds of Sea Park Elementary School. 

Some residents have expressed disappointment at what they say hasn't been aggressive enough testing.

For example, in May 2019, theFlorida Department of Health released a more than yearlong investigation of illnesses in the area, concluding no significant public health risks. At the time, the Jacksonville oncologist who grew up in Brevard and had helped get the state to investigate cancers in the Satellite Beach and Suntree areas, said the state's investigation fell far short of what she'd asked for. The DOH investigation failed to examine all cancer types, the oncologist and other critics said, or include hundreds of local cancer cases activists and survivors reported to the health department.

Information about the potential cleanup sites can be accessed at this Corps site.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to begin the first phase of the Remedial Investigation field work (ground penetrating radar) near Patrick Space Force Base. Corps officials will be available to discuss the environmental investigation between 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, at the Pelican Beach Club House, 1495 State Highway A1A, Satellite Beach. For information, email FUDS.Florida@usace.army.mil or call 800-710-5184.

Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer