[CPEO-MEF] Toxics impact Moffett housing deal

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

We've sent out a series of reports on toxic air contamination and the
underlying groundwater plume of volatile organic compounds at Moffett
Field's Orion Park military family housing area. This property, along
with the on-base Wescoat Housing Area and off-post Shenandoah Square
development, was originally part of the Moffett Naval Air Station. When
the Navy pulled out, all three parcels transferred to the Air Force and
later the Army. The Army has been working to redevelop the three area
under its Residential Communities Initiative, which turns over housing
construction, rehabilitation, and management to private firms. In fact,
in an effort to make housing construction viable at Ft. Irwin, in the
southern California Desert, that project was bundled with Moffett and
another Bay Area location, Camp Parks.

On February 18, 2003, however, at a Mountain View City Council study
session, the Army Corps and its privatization contractor, Clark
Pinnacle, announced that Orion Park was being excluded from the
redevelopment plan because the contamination created uncertainties and
liabilities. That's an understatement. Contamination was only discovered
at this part of Moffett a few years ago. Despite increasing sampling, no
one knows where the contamination comes from. No one knows yet who will
be responsible for cleaning it up. Remediation, therefore, lies in the
distant future.

Meanwhile, Clark Pinnacle is facing a planning challenge, squeezing more
units into less space. As a result, the Mountain View Council is
concerned that the construction at Shenandoah Square, without adequate
park space play area, might not conform to city standards. 

Lenny
-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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