ATSDR VISITS FORD ORD

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>]

From: Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@igc.org>

From: Curt Gandy, Fort Ord Toxics Project, < cgumbi@aol.com > 
TO: Recipients of Mail List, Career Pro Military , < careerpro@igc.org >

SUBJECT: ATSDR's VISIT TO FORT ORD, CA

Fort Ord has just had our first visit from Agency for Toxic Substance and
Disease Registry (ATSDR), and Dr. Mark Webber. After discussing Fort Ord
Toxics Project's (FOTP) concerns regarding ATSDR's preliminary findings with
the ATSDR group from Atlanta Center for Disease Control (CDC), I have this
overwhelming, sinking feeling that ATSDR is going to declare "all is okay"
here at Fort Ord, in spite of evidence to the contrary. 

1. We have two (2) major TCE ground water plumes. One goes under HWY. 1
and part of the beach area, in to the National Monterey Bay Marine
Sanctuary, from an yet undetermined source on Fort Ord. The other
contaminates the City of Marina's water supply. Consequently, Marina's water
is being "blended" and "treated" in order to provide potable water to that
community. Five (5) wells in the housing areas on Fort Ord were destroyed
because the water they produce is TCE contaminated. 

2. According to ATSDR, UXO has been declared a "non-threat" to the
public health and safety, because the public would have to "trespass" in
order to come in contact with that "hazardous substance", even-though there
is a serious lack of "institutional controls" to prevent public access to
hazardous areas on Fort Ord.

3. The Army's "Proposed Plan" for lead removal, of tons bullets imbedded
in the Pacific coastal sand dunes (firing ranges), calls for a 1,860 ppm of
lead to remain, AFTER THE ARMY'S CLEANUP!! 
According to California law, (Title 26 CCR, sect. 22-66-261.24) states that
1,000 ppm is the threshold at which a location becomes a "hazardous waste
site" for lead contamination. As such, the site is subject to RCRA if anyone
 were to try and move the sand/soil off site, AFTER THE ARMY'S PROPOSED
CLEANUP.

The Army's proposed lead "cleanup" is simply outrageous! Especially when you
consider the Fort Ord Reuse Authority's (FORA) "reuse plan" for the seven
mile stretch of National Marine Sanctuary, centers on California Parks and
Recreation constructing a State Park, with on site camping, and a 40 to 80
unit hotel type conference center as well. 

4. ATSDR came to Seaside, and Marina to hold "public interviews", but
did not provide any report(s) to the community RE: ATSDR's Fort Ord work to
date. They promised to send us (FOTP) their "draft report" (brown cover) and
left. We have heard nothing from them since (nearly two months)! Any
advice?

5. We are still waiting to see what will come next from ATSDR. The
local citizens have no independent technical assistance of any real use, to
us individually, or our affected communities as a whole. The Army fights the
citizen/ community members of the Fort Ord Restoration Advisory Board (RAB)
over every effort by citizen/ community RAB members to get "current"
information, and engage in "meaningful discussions" regarding health and
environmental risks associated with the above mentioned issues. 

6. The "Information Repositories" the Army is required to provide to
the public are in an appalling state, cleanup data and information is
missing, misfiled, and presented in such a fashion that it is basically
unusable. The Community RAB members have offered to correct this ongoing
problem, yet the Army refuses. 

It will be interesting to see what comes from ATSDR's visit to Fort Ord. 

Curt Gandy
Director, FOTP

Community Co-Chair
Fort Ord RAB