Novato rejects Navy property

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Novato pulls out of land deal with Navy

By Con Garretson
Marin Independent Journal (CA)
June 2, 2004

Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - The Novato City Council last night
unanimously and without comment pulled out of a deal with the U.S. Navy
for the purchase of a controversial piece of property at Hamilton Field
where a chemical plume has spread underground from a former military gas station.

Escrow had been extended on the 2.7-acre site four times since 2000,
most recently in October. The property was excluded from the property
transfer agreements for several other Navy parcels at Hamilton where
residential development has occurred and is ongoing.

The city's position is that the Navy should more thoroughly clean the
site before the property is transferred, otherwise those costs - and any
liability claims from potential toxics exposure that result - would be
borne by the city and its developer.

On May 20, Acting City Manager Mary Neilan met with Deputy Assistant
Secretary of the Navy Wayne Arny regarding a U.S. Justice Department
ultimatum to the city to either accept the parcel or terminate escrow. 

Otherwise, the Navy official said, his agency would take court action
"to compel termination of the escrow," Neilan told council members in a
staff report.

The property, proposed for unspecified commercial development, is the
last parcel pending transfer between the city and the Navy as part of
what was a groundbreaking transfer of military property to a municipality.

Groundwater testing has shown that a plume of the gasoline additive
methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, a suspected carcinogen, has leaked
from underground tanks. 

...

for the entire article, see
http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~2187322,00.html

-- 


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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