Cleanup standards protect human health,…
Cleanup standards protect
human health, environment; redevelopment encourages job
growth
SAN FRANCISCO – At a ceremony today, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, along with the California Department of Toxic
Substances Control, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the
U.S. Air Force, Sacramento County and McClellan Business Park, will
highlight the first time that a private party has completed a
cleanup at a military Superfund site in the nation.
“This project is a great example of
government and the private sector working together to protect the
public and return land to productive reuse,” said Jane
Diamond, Superfund Director for EPA’s Pacific Southwest
Region. “In this era of decreasing public resources and
increasing need for redevelopment, we need more of these creative
efforts to cleanup and reuse property in partnership with the
private sector.”
Completion of the Parcel C-6 project is just the
first of several cleanups EPA will be overseeing in consultation
with the state of California. The success of the Parcel C-6 process
has laid the groundwork for successfully combining future
environmental cleanups with redevelopment.
Using funds from the Air Force, developer
McClellan Business Park conducted the soil cleanup at a 62-acre
parcel on the McClellan Air Force Base Superfund Site. Through an
early transfer process McClellan Business Park assumed title to the
property along with the responsibility for its cleanup, with
oversight from EPA. The investigation and cleanup of the property
was a large collective effort on the part of all involved as newly
defined roles were assumed by each of the agencies for this
cleanup.
In May 2009, EPA selected remedies to address
contaminated soil at Parcel C-6. The contaminants include
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, furans, heavy metals and
volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Under the oversight of EPA and
the State, approximately 26,000 cubic yards of soil were excavated
by McClellan Business Park between May and October 2010. The
cleanup included treatment of more than 11,000 cubic yards of soil
at an on-site thermal system, between February and May 2011. The
combination of treated soil and soil that already met the
established cleanup goals totaled almost 19,000 cubic yards of soil
that was diverted from landfills and returned to the
site.
Monitoring and institutional controls that limit
land use will ensure that the cleanup remains protective of human
health and the environment while allowing for the safe reuse of the
property. McClellan Business Park will soon transfer ownership of
nearly 2/3 of the parcel for further development, encouraging jobs
and advancing the regional economy.
EPA is currently working on cleanups at two
other sites and finalizing the cleanup decisions for another 49
sites in a Record of Decision planned for December
2011.
The former McClellan Air Force Base was closed
under the Base Realignment and Closure Act in 1995 and operations
stopped in 2001. The former Air Force base was placed on the
EPA’s Superfund list in 1987. Over 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 at the base.
For more information please visit: http://epa.gov/Region9/superfund/mcclellan/index.html