TINTON FALLS — As part of the preparation for the federal government to turn over the Fort Monmouth property after it closes in 2011, the Fort Monmouth Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) heard presentations from two ecological remediation groups at a recent meeting.

Daniel Duh, an ecological risk assessor for Shaw Environmental, spoke to the RAB Oct. 1 meeting about conducting a baseline ecological evaluation (BEE).

A BEE is established in the requirements for site remediation under state law, said Duh. It is the first tier of a multi-tiered approach for conducting ecological evaluations and ecological risk assessments.

According to Duh, there are three basic elements in the BEE: seeking out any contaminants of potential ecological concern that may be present on the site; identifying and evaluating environmentally sensitive areas; and determining if there are chemical migration pathways from any possibly contaminated site to environmentally sensitive areas.

According to Tim Rider, a spokesman for RAB and Fort Monmouth, there are several areas on the fort where there were, or in some cases still are, underground fuel storage tanks.

"Many of them have been removed," he said in an interview after the Sept. 30 RAB meeting, "but this is all part of the work we need to do to meet [New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection] standards."

According to Rider, the federal government has a specific course that is followed whenever federal property is being turned over to private owners or local municipalities.

There are eight phases, and Rider said that currently different sites on the fort property are at different points of remediation, and several have already met the No Further Action (NFA) standards set by the DEP, meaning that the environmental standards have been met.

"Many of those sites will continue to be monitored," said Rider.

He said that ground contamination can be remediated to state standards by adding an oxygen release component to the soil. Over time, the oxygen degrades and helps break up contaminants, in many cases, down to state standards. Many areas of contamination on the fort have already received this treatment, Rider said.

Duh said that much of the work for the BEE can be done by examining existing documents regarding the ecological status of fort property; however, he said a qualita- tive site visit would also be a part of the evaluation.

"Then we'll go through the screening process," he said, "to answer the question 'Do we need to go further?' "

According to Duh, there are 23 sites on fort property that need a BEE, and he recommends that 23 separate BEE reports, rather than one report for the entire fort property.

"This is the conservative approach," he said. "If you do separate reports, and some of them come up as having problems, you have a better idea of where those problems are. If you have just one report for the whole property and one site comes up as having a problem, the whole facility has a problem. And you don't have a clear idea of where those problems are."

Mark Gallagher, of Princeton Hydro, Ringoes, spoke to the RAB about the stabilization of streams and wetlands near the multiple landfills located on Fort Monmouth.

"A number of streams are highly eroded," said Gallagher, adding that the point of stabilizing the areas of streams and wetlands around the landfills is so that in the event of a storm, waste materials from the landfills would not be exposed.

Certain landfills border on bodies of water including Parkers Creek, Lafetra Creek, Mill Creek, Wampum Brook and Husky Brook, he said.

Gallagher's recommendations include adding rocks to the toe of several landfills, planting additional vegetation and laying down fabric in order to stabilize the ground and prevent erosion.

Neither Shaw nor Princeton Hydro has been retained for work by RAB or Fort Monmouth, and no contract for work has been signed with either party.

According to Rider, the Army will develop a remediation plan in conjunction with the NJDEP. Once the plan is completed and approved by the DEP, a budgetary amount will be determined and contracts for remediation will be awarded.

With only three years until the September 2011 closure date, Rider said it is possible that not all of the remediation needed will be complete, but that as in any other land sale, all parties, including the Army, the municipalities and any private developers, will agree upon the division of responsibility to finish the work.

The next RAB meeting will take place on Jan. 10 with an open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information from phase one and two of the Environmental Condition of Property will be discussed. The meeting is open to the public.