Letter to Cal-EPA: Oversee Benicia!

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

ALERT - SIGN ON PLEASE

In Benicia, California, a developer plans to construct housing on
property with a long history of unexploded ordnance, as well as other
contamination, but the Department of Toxics Substances Control (DTSC)
has apparently chosen not to exercise regulatory oversight at this
formerly used defense site. Please join me in signing this letter to
Cal-EPA's new Secretary, Winston Hickox, to urge the agency to get
involved. We are particularly interesting in having Restoration Advisory
Board (RAB) community co-chairs, other RAB members, and other community
members from California endorse the letter.

Please reply with your name(s), affiliation, and whether the affiliation
is for identification purposes only. Send your responses to:

Center for Public Environmental Oversight
San Francisco Urban Institute
425 Market Street, Second Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
415/405-7751
fax: 415/904-7765
cpeo@cpeo.org

Lenny Siegel






March, 1999

Winston Hickox
Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency
Sacramento, CA

Dear Sir:

We are writing because it appears that Cal-EPA is failing to oversee the
cleanup of an extremely sensitive former military site in the city of
Benicia. The "Tourtelot Property," formerly part of the Benicia Arsenal,
is slated for residential development. Even though the Army Corps of
Engineers continues to find old munitions on the site - and there may be
other contaminants present -  the Department of Toxic Substances Control
(DTSC) is not taking an active role in remedial efforts. Instead, as the
city of Benicia assumes lead agency role on behalf of the site's
developer, DTSC appears to be relying upon the Army - the responsible
party - to provide "regulatory oversight."

This hands-off attitude not only creates a significant risk for the
people who will eventually live on the Tourtelot Property, it sets a
dangerous precedent.  The Army Corps lists 143 formerly used defense
sites in California known or suspected to contain unexploded ordnance.
While the Corps runs a professional program for characterizing and
remediating those sites, its program is severely constrained by both
technology and funding. Without state insistence that unexploded
ordnance response be conducted to maximize the reduction of risk,
incidents, such as the 1983 death of two boys at the Tierra Santa site
in San Diego, are inevitable.

Nationally, state environmental agencies are insisting upon the right to
participate in the management of risk at munitions ranges and burial
sites. U.S. EPA recognized this authority in the Munitions Rule, and the
Defense Department recognized it in the Proposed Range Rule. However,
unless state regulators assert their rightful roles, the federal rules
are meaningless.

We ask that you immediately instruct DTSC to assign staff to the
Tourtelot project before someone gets hurt.

Sincerely,



-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
(PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE PHASING OUT
MY OLD E-MAIL ADDRESS: lsiegel@igc.org)
http://www.cpeo.org