Decontamination Plan for Lajes Air Base to be implemented in June

The decontamination plan for Lajes Air Base was presented to the Government of the Azores by U.S. authorities last January and should begin to be implemented in June this year.

The information was provided today by Francisco Tavares, the Azores representative at the Permanent Bilateral Commission of the Cooperation and Defence Agreement between Portugal and the United States, during the meeting of the Regional Council for Environment and Sustainable Development (CRADS) in compliance with the provisions of the 2011 resolution issued by the Regional Assembly of the Azores on this matter.

According to the government official, the plan will be implemented with the removal of pollution identified in two areas near Lajes Air Base (the area near Station 1 and the area near the fuel tanks).

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the CRADS meeting, Francisco Tavares explained that, from a technical standpoint, the project involves the installation of pumps to extract water and pollutants found in Praia da Vitória aquifers as well as the continuous monitoring of water quality. However, as we have known since 2010, there is no to the population."

Questioned on the schedule of the removal works, the Azores representative acknowledged that "environmental remediation processes are quite long," adding that the current plan, which comprises several stages, may take between 5 to 15 years.

"The initial work will be carried out in less than five years, followed by an assessment for the implementation of other subsequent stages," said Francisco Tavares. The government official considered this plan "as a result of the dialogue between regional administration and U.S. authorities on the actions to be carried out in the long-term" in order to eliminate sources of contamination associated with Lajes Air Base.

Despite recognising that this "along process," Francisco Tavares stressed the "satisfaction" of regional authorities with the implementation of this plan, which will "fully clean" the polluted areas in the municipality of Praia da Vitória.