Testing Raises Airport Costs

<I>Miami</I> - With a $4 billion capital improvement program under way, Miami International Airport is becoming some of the most expensive real estate in south Florida.

But the ground on which the airport is located may have become more expensive than necessary over the past three years, as more than $15 million was spent digging up toxic dirt--most of which turned out not to be toxic after all.

More than half a billion pounds of dirt were dug up at the airport site in order to be hauled away and tested for toxic contamination. County records show that in 1995, about $5.6 million was spent digging up the soil, which the Dade County Department of Environmental Resource Management had suspected of being polluted with jet fuel that was either spilled or leaked from tanks at the airport over the past 20 years or more. The contamination presented another major hurdle--in addition to the dispute between American Airlines and its competitors over funding of new terminal space, which was resolved in American's favor in March (BTN, April 14)--for the airport's expansion plans because no new structures could be built on contaminated land.

The airport administration began a process in which the dirt was dug up, hauled away and then tested for toxicity. As it turned out, 70 percent of the dirt that was removed was not toxic,

Now, there's a new plan, according to Jose Gonzales, chief of the pollution prevention division of DERM: Test the dirt first, and only then dig it up, if necessary.

Even with the new methods, cleaning up the airport property will be expensive. Dade County officials have estimated that it could take $400 million to clean up 22 known polluted sites at the airport over the next decade or more.