[CPEO-MEF] NASA changes marsh stance

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

California
NASA changes marsh stance
After nearly two years of controversy, NASA says Moffett wetland may be
restored, after all
By Justin Scheck

In a move that thrilled local wetlands advocates, a NASA official said
Thursday that the space agency will consider restoring a Moffett Field
wetland that has been the source of an eighteen-month maelstrom of
controversy.

The informal announcement -- made by Don Chuck, an environmental
restoration specialist for NASA -- likely means the Navy will have to
clean up nearly all the toxins in a former salt marsh diked off from San
Francisco Bay and pocked with deposits of PCBs, heavy metals and the
pesticide DDT.

Chuck surprised the handful of environmental advocates at a meeting of
Moffett Field's Restoration Advisory Board, a group of government
officials and residents that meets quarterly to discuss Moffett Field's
Superfund sites.

As the Voice first reported in early 2001, the wetland ignited
controversy when the Navy -- whose runway operations polluted the site
-- announced a cleanup plan that would leave behind a significant amount
of the toxins.

That would have rendered restoring the marsh to its natural, saltwater
state impossible, since residual contamination could work its way up the
saltwater food chain, where it would end up at dangerous levels in
predators like the great blue heron.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/paw/paonline/voice/news/2003_01_10.nasa.html

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