[CPEO-IRF] Orion Park (Moffett Field) military housing (CA)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The Orion Park Housing Area is one of three distinct parcels that make
up Moffett Military Housing. Originally part of Moffett Naval Air
Station, they were transferred to the Air Force in 1994, as part of BRAC
1991. The rest of Moffett Field was transferred to NASA. Under BRAC
1995, the property was re-closed, and it transferred to the Army in the
late 1990s. After transfer, the underlying plume of volatile organic
compounds was discovered. Despite growing knowledge of the
contamination, the Army moved ahead with its housing privatization deal,
largely because Moffett's apparently prime real estate was bundled with
the housing area at the desert base of Fort Irwin, in southern California.

U.S. EPA considers Orion Park to be part of the Moffett Field National
Priorities List site, but the Navy appears not to. The Navy has
conducted and continues to conduct some limited studies on the property,
but it has not moved ahead with a full-blown remedial investigation
because it contests that it is the responsible party. It is not clear,
at this time, what/who the source of the contamination is. (Three
potentially responsible parties - the Navy, NASA, and a group of
electronics companies - draw groundwater contamination contour lines
that point the plume/finger in different directions.) However, as I
understand the "Superfund" Law, the Navy is the responsible party until
it is shown that another party did indeed cause the pollution.

LS

*******



Toxics torpedo Moffett housing deal 

By Jon Wiener 
Mountain View Voice (CA)
July 1, 2005


A plume of chemical solvent beneath the Orion Park housing complex at
Moffett Field has mucked up the Army's plans to lease the property to a
private developer, forcing the Army to rebuild and replace the
dilapidated units itself. 

Officials have spent years arguing over how trichloroethylene (TCE)
wound up in groundwater close to the surface at Orion Park, where a
group of 460 housing units, half of them occupied, sit just outside
Moffett Field's main gate. Those in charge of the clean-up effort there
-- including the Navy, Moffett Field's former owner -- say they are
still trying to sort out who is responsible for the problem. 

Their failure to resolve the dispute has stalled development plans long
enough that the Army will have to fix the Orion units on its own. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mv-voice.com/morgue/2005/2005_07_01.aorion.shtml

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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