BADCAT Press release

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>]

From: Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>

PRESS RELEASE

21 TECHNOLOGIES RESPOND TO CLEAN-UP NEEDS AT CLOSING 
MILITARY BASES

San Francisco, February 27, 1996 -- Clean-up of the Bay Area's 12 closing 
military bases got a boost today when the Bay Area Defense Conversion 
Action Team's (BADCAT) Environmental Technology Project, a program of 
the Bay Area Economic Forum (BAEF), received 21 proposals from 19 
environmental technology developers seeking to demonstrate their 
technologies. Eleven of the proposals were from Bay Area technology 
companies and two were from the region's national laboratories, with 
others coming from as far away as the East Coast and Canada.

The proposals were in response to BADCAT's solicitation for new solutions 
to common contamination problems on the closing bases to facilitate 
faster, better, cheaper and safer ways to turn the bases into productive 
real estate for the region's benefit. Over the next month, several of 
the companies will have their technology proposals evaluated for putting 
their technologies to the test at one of several test sites established 
at selected Bay Area Navy bases. The new technologies will be evaluated 
for cost and performance benefits as compared to traditional 
characterization and clean-up methods. Companies with technologies that 
perform well could be awarded clean-up opportunities. 

BADCAT initiated the Environmental Technology Project to link expansion 
of one the region's competitive industries to base conversion as a means 
to replace lost military jobs and dollars in the local economy and to 
accelerate clean-up and transfer of Bay Area bases for local use. The 
BADCAT Environmental Technology Project is a partnership between BAEF, 
Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance (BARTA), U.S. Navy, California 
Environmental Protection Agency (CAL EPA), Chevron and other technical 
experts collaborating with technology companies to test the efficiency 
of these new detection and clean-up methods.

The partnership is an agreement to work together, during an era of scarce 
federal dollars for clean-up, to incorporate new technologies into base 
conversion and to focus on ways to reduce the time required for clean-up 
and the $1.1 billion dollars the Governor's Office of Planning Research 
estimates it will take for clean-up of the regions 12 closing bases. 

CONTACT(S):

Sunne Wright McPeak 
CEO & President 
Bay Area Economic Forum (BAEF) 

Erika Bley 
Project Coordinator 
Bay Area Defense Conversion Action Team (BADCAT)
415 357-3100