Monday, January 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

UPDATE: President Bush again orders Air Force operations at Area 51 kept secret

WASHINGTON -- Citing national security concerns and litigation against the government, President Bush has chosen again to keep secret Air Force operations near Groom Lake.

Bush issued the presidential determination, made public last week, in a memo sent Sept. 13 to the chiefs of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Air Force.

In his memorandum, Bush said it was of "paramount interest" to exempt the base, also known as Area 51, from the disclosure of classified information.

The government has acknowledged the installation's existence but refuses to disclose work at the top-secret facility.

Like his predecessor, President Clinton, Bush cited two pending Nevada court cases seeking information about the base operations brought by Helen Frost and Stella Kasza, widows of two men who worked at the military base.

The women allege their husbands were exposed to hazardous and toxic materials at the installation, which sits along a dry lake bed in Lincoln County, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas.

The one-page memo exempts the Air Force from adhering to federal, state, interstate or local laws regarding solid waste or hazardous waste if classified information would be disclosed.

The annual presidential directive keeps secret information regarding operations at the base, including documents and testimony Frost and Kasza are seeking to link Area 51 to their husbands' deaths, said Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University law professor who represents the plaintiffs.

"The information being withheld includes information that would show the government knowingly committed crimes that may have killed two workers and injured countless others," Turley said. "We will continue to litigate this case until the true facts are out."

The White House referred calls to the Defense Department, which did not return calls seeking comment.

In 1995, Clinton became the first president to sign the annual exemption, which stemmed from the Frost and Kasza cases.

Turley said Bush's order establishes a historical record that the government "covered up crimes at Area 51 and prevented the public from the knowledge."

-- SAMANTHA YOUNG

Company reports progress

Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. said it made significant progress in 2002 in preventing groundwater tainted with the rocket-fuel ingredient perchlorate from reaching Las Vegas Wash, which empties into Lake Mead.

Pat Corbett, director of environmental technologies for Kerr-McGee Safety and Environmental Affairs, said an ion-exchange process that extracts the contaminant has been expanded to other key locations to intercept tainted groundwater and is operating more efficiently.

In the past three months, since a new treatment facility went on line near Pabco and Athens roads downstream of the plant near Henderson, the company has been treating 850 gallons per minute, combined with two other locations where perchlorate is extracted.

The concentrations of the intercepted compound are three times greater than when the first system went online in November 1999 at a spot downstream of the industrial center where perchlorate has seeped.

"I see this as significant progress that will have a marked impact on Las Vegas Wash and, ultimately, Lake Mead," Corbett said.

The company has installed a deep, 1,700-foot-long barrier to block migration of contaminated groundwater from the plant site, he said.

In 1999 and 2000, the company spent $61 million on the perchlorate cleanup effort.

After water is intercepted, it is channeled to tanks filled with a resin that absorbs the contaminant. Once the resin has absorbed all the perchlorate it can handle, it is sucked from the tanks by vacuum machines, packaged and hauled to an incinerator that disposes of it in accordance with environmental regulations.

-- KEITH ROGERS

Wondering how a local story turned out or what happened to someone in the news? Call the City Desk at 383-0264, and we will try to answer your question in this column.