Ramey Air Force Base

Base Background

Ramey occupied roughly 4,357 acres on the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, just north of the city of Aguadilla. The U.S. government began acquiring the land, then known as Borinquen Field, in 1939, and the Army Air Corps built it as a refueling and maintenance stop for aircraft flying to Europe and Africa and as a base for antisubmarine patrols during World War II. The installation was renamed Ramey Air Force Base in January 1948, honoring Brig. Gen. Howard K. Ramey, and operated under the Strategic Air Command for the next 25 years.

Ramey’s Strategic Reconnaissance Wing flew RB-36 and later B-52 bombers on Cold War alert, with KC-135 tankers supporting aerial refueling missions, until the Air Force phased out its bomber wing and closed the base between 1971 and 1973. Today the site operates as Rafael Hernandez Airport, a joint civilian and military airport with an adjoining industrial park, and a 125-acre U.S. Coast Guard installation, Air Station Borinquen, continues to operate on part of the former base property.

Toxic Exposure at Ramey Air Force Base

Two areas south of the airport runway, used for waste disposal during the Air Force’s operation of the base, were the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that sampled soil, sediment, and groundwater and found specific contaminants above federal and Puerto Rico standards.

Ramey is one of the Puerto Rico bases veterans sometimes name in Agent Orange claims, but DoD’s historical herbicide testing records don’t identify Ramey as a testing site, and Puerto Rico isn’t a presumptive Agent Orange location, so a claim tied to Ramey needs evidence connecting a veteran’s specific duties to a documented event. Get assistance with an Agent Orange claim.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) in Groundwater

Groundwater samples collected from monitoring wells at Landfill Area 1 in June 1997 showed trichloroethylene (TCE) above the EPA’s maximum contaminant level for drinking water and the Puerto Rico Water Quality Standard of 5.0 micrograms per liter, reaching as high as 7.8 micrograms per liter. The same wells were resampled in December 1998 to confirm the finding, and TCE again exceeded the guidance levels, this time as high as 8.9 micrograms per liter. Investigators could not determine whether the source was the buried landfill debris itself or another location upgradient on the former base, but the exceedance was confirmed in both rounds of testing, roughly a quarter century after the Air Force stopped using the site.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

A sediment sample collected in 1997 from a sinkhole within Landfill Area 1, which fills with stormwater runoff after heavy rain, contained benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene at concentrations above the EPA’s residential risk-based screening levels. These polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are commonly associated with burned or buried debris and petroleum residue, consistent with the construction debris and scrap metal investigators observed inside the same sinkhole.

Getting Compensation

Anyone who served at Ramey Air Force Base during its decades as an active Strategic Air Command installation could have come into contact with these substances long before symptoms of a related illness ever appeared, since toxic exposure conditions often take years or decades to surface.

Look over the chart below for the conditions this kind of contamination has been tied to. If you served at Ramey and were later diagnosed with one of them, Hill & Ponton’s VA-accredited lawyers may be able to help: we handle VA disability appeals exclusively, with no fee unless we win. Get started with a free evaluation.