Welcome to the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek
Installation Restoration Program
This web site is part of the Navy's active efforts to provide accurate, timely and comprehensive information on the environmental IR program currently in action at NAB Little Creek.
BACKGROUND
NAB Little Creek, located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides logistic facilities and support services for local commands, organizations, home-ported ships, and other units to meet the amphibious warfare training requirements of the Armed Forces of the United States. The base is in the northwest corner of Virginia Beach and its western border abuts the city of Norfolk, Virginia. The area surrounding this 2,147-acre base is low lying and relatively flat with several fresh water lakes (Chubb Lake, Lake Bradford, Little Creek Reservoir/ Lake Smith, and Lake Whitehurst) and four saltwater bodies (Little Creek Harbor, Little Creek Cove, Desert Cove, and Little Creek Channel that connects the coves and harbor with the Chesapeake Bay) located on or adjacent to the base.
NAB Little Creek was commissioned on July 30, 1945, by combining four contiguous activities. The Navy began purchasing land in the area from private estates and the Pennsylvania Railroad just prior to World War II. The first activity to be commissioned was the Amphibious Training Base in the southwestern corner of the present base near Little Creek Harbor. The base’s mission was the training of landing craft personnel for operational assignments. Over the last 50 years, NAB Little Creek has expanded in both area and the complexity of its mission.
ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION
Comprehensive environmental restoration activities at NAB Little Creek essentially started in 1984 under the Navy's Navy Assessment and Control of Installation Pollutants (NACIP) and Installation Restoration (IR) Programs. The purpose of the Navy's NACIP and IR Program was to identify, assess, characterize, and clean up or control contamination from past waste management activities at Navy and Marine Corps facilities. Given the nature and extent of its operations, the Navy has been involved with toxic and hazardous materials for several decades. The Department of Defense, as well as general industry, have realized that previously acceptable methods of disposal are no longer sufficient and actions are being taken, through these programs, to clean up Navy sites that pose a threat to human health or the environment. Current Navy waste management operations are in compliance with all federal, state, and U.S. Navy regulations to ensure safe operation and disposal.
In 1981 the Department of the Navy initiated the Navy Assessment and Control of Installation Pollutants (NACIP) Program. The NACIP Program used a three-phased approach to study and clean up sites. NAB Little Creek initiated its environmental restoration, study and inves-tigation efforts under the NACIP Program by conducting an Initial Assessment Study (IAS) in 1984. The NACIP program was changed in 1986 to reflect the requirements of
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
(CERCLA) as amended by the
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
(SARA). This revised program is referred to as the IR Program.
On July 28, 1998, the
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) proposed that NAB Little Creek be added to the
National Priorities List
(NPL). EPA scores all industrial sites using the
Hazard Ranking System
(HRS) and those facilities with scores exceeding 28.5 are proposed for the NPL. The HRS score of 50, assigned by the EPA to NAB Little Creek, is mainly attributed to the surface water component at Site 7 (Amphibious Base Landfill). The proposed listing was followed by a minimum 60-day review and comment period prior to the inclusion of NAB Little Creek on the NPL. On May 10, 1999, NAB Little Creek was placed on the NPL.
In the past, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) has primarily provided regulatory oversight at NAB Little Creek. Now that NAB Little Creek has been placed on the NPL, the EPA has taken a more active role in providing regulatory and technical oversight to support the IR/CERCLA activities. In addition, a
Federal Facilities Agreement
(FFA) has been negotiated between the Navy, the EPA, and the VDEQ. As part of the FFA negotiation process, all past and future work at IR sites and
SWMUs will be reviewed and a course of action for future work requirements at each site will be developed.
