MOFFETT NEEDS MONEY

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>]

From: Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>

***** WARNING ***** This is a long file.

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>
Subject: MOFFETT NEEDS MONEY

MOFFETT RAB MEMBERS SAY "WE'RE READY TO MOVE DIRT"
In a previous posting, I described how members of the Moffett Field 
Restoration Advisory Board - including the Navy, NASA, regulators, 
local industry, local government, and environmental activists - had 
worked together to develop a compromise remedy for two contaminated 
landfills at the former Naval Air Station. Now, in a disclosure in the 
spirit of the recommendations of the Federal Facilities Environmental 
Restoration Dialogue Committee, the Navy has told the RAB that it only 
has enough money to implement the remedy at one of the landfills. In 
fact, at the current level of funding, it may never have a large enough 
chunk of cash to start action at the other site. 
In response, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition has been circulating a 
letter that has been signed by community members of the Moffett RAB. 
The text, without bold emphasis, is attached.
Lenny Siegel
TO: The South Bay Congressional Delegation
FROM: Citizens concerned about the Moffett Field cleanup
SUBJECT: Defense clean-up funding
DATE: May 12, 1996
As local residents working to promote the prompt, safe, cost-effective, 
and complete cleanup of hazardous waste contamination of Moffett Field, 
we ask you to work to ensure that there is adequate funding in military 
cleanup accounts to support the implementation of remedies developed 
cooperatively by the Navy, state and federal regulatory agencies, and 
the local community. Without a substantial increase in funds available 
for the Moffett cleanup, the remediation of at least one toxic landfill 
will be delayed for years, leaving in place serious threats to human 
health and the natural environment and limiting potential future uses 
of and public access to the facility's historic wetlands areas.
Last June the Navy proposed a plan to cap two landfills near the north 
end of the Moffett runway. Members of the Moffett Restoration Advisory 
Board (RAB) pointed out that the Navy was proposing a less complete 
remedy than its civilian counterparts - the local cities - had carried 
out at their closed landfills in the same area. 
This year the Navy, EPA, and state regulators approved an alternative 
that meets many of the concerns raised by the community. The 
alternative costs $2.9 million less than the most costly of the 
original alternatives. The Moffett RAB, the national model for public 
participation in the oversight of cleanup, represents environmental 
activists, local governments, industry, and others from surrounding 
communities. The RAB has clearly demonstrated that it supports superior 
environmental protection that is cost effective.
In spite of the diligent work by the RAB and even though the Navy has 
classified these sites as "high risk," the Moffett cleanup team still 
does not have the funds to move forward with the agreed remedy for the 
larger of the two landfills. Even if the President's fiscal year 1997 
budget proposal is adopted without reductions, Moffett expects to 
receive only $1.4 million in cleanup funds. Another $7,360,000 in 
cleanup projects, including the initial investment in and maintenance 
of this landfill project, will remain unfunded. If funding remains at 
this level, it will be impossible ever to start a project of this 
magnitude and clean-up efforts will be inefficient, insufficient and 
piecemeal.
We are pleased that the Navy at Moffett Field, after decades of 
unconstrained pollution, has chosen to work with the community to 
protect our health, our environment, and our economic future. But that 
cooperation will mean little unless Congress provides sufficient 
funding to carry out the program.
We are not asking that Moffett be given special treatment. Rather, we 
ask that the President and Congress recognize and fund cleanup 
obligations that were incurred years ago by the federal government when 
the Navy and other federal agencies released hazardous wastes into the 
environment.