On June 1, the Corral Fire began to burn just south of Tracy, California. The size of the fire quickly grew to cover 14,168 acres and burned a portion of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Site 300 High Explosives Testing Range.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Four days prior to the Corral Fire, a controlled burn took place in an attempt to control and negate potential fires. The controlled burn was incomplete, and so as a result, the Corral Fire was able to easily sweep around the patch of burned grass, and spread. Recently, local group Tri-Valley CAREs met with LLNL employees, who confirmed that the fire started well inside Site 300 territory, where it swept southeast, damaging a significant portion of cleanup facilities on the site.
Public media and news coverage had previously stated that the damages from the Corral Fire consisted of one residence and two injured firefighters, but in reality it was significantly more. This includes:
10 pump-and-treat systems were damaged.
21 monitoring wells were put out of commission.
Several pipelines were damaged, one of which resulted in a 6,000 gal. contaminated leak, containing perchlorate and VOCs.
Accumulated damage resulted in several systems being temporarily shut down. Some were restarted on June 18, operating at 70%.
A vapor extraction system was significantly damaged.
Two unused, on-site buildings burned.
A sub-slab depressurization system was significantly damaged and needs to be replaced. A permanent, updated system is scheduled for some time this year.
These damages were not publicly reported, and were only uncovered during the meeting organized by Tri-Valley CAREs. This meeting strictly contained information regarding cleanup, and did not cover damages to programmatic activities on Site 300 High Explosives Testing Range.
Site 300 is home to contaminants, such as depleted uranium and PCBs. Any fire, controlled or not, has the capacity to spread these dangerous compounds into the air, thus disturbing the surrounding environments.
Tri-Valley CAREs will formally request reports regarding the cause of the fire if not publicly available. They will continue to seek out information and post updates on their website: https://trivalleycares.org/2024/update-on-the-corral-fire-at-livermore-labs-site-300.
By Dash Orel,
