First Military Base Superfund Cleanup Privatized, More Planned

SACRAMENTO, California, August 29, 2007 (ENS) - For the first time, the military has decided to fund a private entity to conduct a clean up in conjunction with redevelopment at a Superfund site.

Sacramento County will contract with developer McClellan Business Park using $11.2 million from the Air Forc

e to clean up a 62 acre parcel on the McClellan Air Force Base Superfund Site. The cleanup arrangement still requires the approval of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the U.S. EPA and California EPA.

The former McClellan Air Force Base, a 3,000 acre facility located in Sacramento, was placed on the EPA’s Superfund list in 1987.

More than 300 identified sites within the former base are contaminated with solvents, metals and other hazardous wastes as the result of aircraft maintenance and other industrial activities.

McClellan was slated for closure under the Base Realignment and Closure Act in 1995 and shuttered in 2001.

Since the site was placed on the National Priorities List, the Air Force has conducted investigations and cleanup throughout the base. The final cleanup remedy for the groundwater contamination is in place, including a network of over 600 extraction and monitoring wells. Several areas of soil contamination have been cleaned up and other activities are ongoing.

At a ceremony Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Air Force, along with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Sacramento County and McClellan Business Park, marked the occasion.

"Combining redevelopment needs with environmental cleanup efforts will help move these properties back into productive reuse more quickly in communities across the nation," said Keith Takata the EPA’s director of Superfund for the Pacific Southwest region.

The EPA says privatizing military base Superfund cleanups "helps maximize cleanup and redevelopment dollars."

"The framework developed for this project serves as a model for similar revitalization projects at closing bases across the country," said Takata.

The cleanup is expected to result in 1,200 jobs and $600,000 per year in increased tax revenues for the region.

McClellan Business Park will complete the investigation of the site and will develop a preferred cleanup option for public review and comment. The EPA will then select the final remedy and McClellan Business Park will begin site cleanup, with EPA and state oversight.

McClellan Business Park is responsible for cleaning up the 62 acres under a consent agreement with the EPA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The Air Force remains legally responsible for the site, and will continue to clean up the majority of the remaining 3,000 acre McClellan Air Force Base Superfund Site.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.