Talks scheduled on cleanup of former U.S. Air Force base in Salina

? The first mediation sessions have been scheduled for next month in an ongoing fight over cleaning up contamination at a former U.S. Air Force base in Salina.

Officials from the city of Salina, the Salina Airport Authority the Salina school district and Kansas State University-Salina filed a federal lawsuit in Kansas City, Kan., last year in a bid to expedite cleaning up soil and groundwater polluted decades ago with an industrial degreaser and other chemicals at the former Schilling Air Force Base.

Salina acquired the base when it closed in 1965. The site is now home to Kansas State University-Salina, Salina Municipal Airport and Salina Technical School. The plaintiffs contend that the federal government should pay for the cleanup because the chemicals came from the Air Force operation at the site.

The site is contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE, which was widely used to clean missiles and other weapons and was frequently dumped at military sites. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says exposure to high concentrations of the chemical can cause nervous system problems, liver and lung damage, abnormal heartbeat, coma and death.

Tim Rogers, executive director of the Salina Airport Authority, said Friday that the first mediation sessions have been scheduled for Oct. 25-27 in Kansas City, Mo.

“The district court, the mediator and the attorneys involved, everybody has focused right now on these dates coming up with the intent to see if we can reach a consensus and direction,” Roger said. “And so we can focus on what’s the proper remedy and the costs that will allow us to really move this project forward.”

Michael D. Hockley, an environmental lawyer in Kansas City, was appointed mediator earlier.

Rogers said it was unclear whether additional mediation sessions will be required.

In their lawsuit, Salina officials also say the TCE and other compounds have “migrated into the soils” under residential areas near the site.

Rogers said the chemicals are being monitored at several sites in the area. He said testing so far shows no “significant movement toward the city of Salina’s water wells” and that levels on the outer limits of the contaminated area show either no detection of the chemicals or they are at levels below the federal standard.

He said costs and duration of the cleanup have not been determined but would be part of any settlement

Christina Richmond, a lawyer with the environmental defense section of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is handling the lawsuit for the government, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.