[CPEO-MEF] NASA changes use plan for Moffett Site 25

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

NASA has changed its planned use for Site 25, the storm water retention
pond at Moffett Field (former Moffett Naval Air Station), adjacent to
Mountain View, California. NASA's plan meets the principal request of
community and environmental groups in the Bay Area, that Moffett's Site
25 be cleaned well enough to support and fish-eating birds. Activists
will be reviewing NASA's plan to see if it adequately serves
conservation goals while meeting the facility's need for floodwater
protection. They will also be working to ensure that NASA's new plan is
incorporated in the Navy's remedial investigation for Site 25.

In a December 2, 2004 letter to the Navy's Base Environmental
Coordinator Andrea Espinoza, NASA Ames Research Center' Deputy Director
for Safety, Environmental and Mission Assurance Sandy Olliges explained:

"The purpose of this letter is to inform you that NASA's planned land us
of the storm water retention pond at Site 25 has changed from a pond
with seasonal drying, to a managed pond that will contain water
throughout the year. This will support a fish based ecosystem, with fish
eating birds, resulting in the requirement for a more stringent cleanup
level than would have been required for the pond with seasonal drying.

"In collaboration with the South Bay Salt Pond restoration project, NASA
Ames has been conducting a study to determine the feasibility of tidal
restoration, and other ecological restoration, of the storm water
retention pond. While subsidence and NASA's requirement for stormwater
management prevent tidal restoration of the entire storm water retention
pond, the study has shown that tidal restoration will be possible in the
western portion of the storm water retention pond, including the
northwest corner of the western diked marsh and NASA's Maintenance
Operations facility. See draft Figure, [not] attached.

"Depending on whether the regional South Bay Salt Pond restoration
project results in the tidal restoration of U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's (USFWS) Pond A2E, and depending upon the final calculations
regarding the capacity of the storm water retention pond, it may also be
possible for tidal restoration to occur in the northeast portion of the
storm water retention pond.

"These changes in the storm water retention pond would occur when the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) constructs new flood protection
levees. The Corps is coordinating with the project management team for
the South Bay Salt Pond restoration. The Corps and the USFWS are joint
lead agencies in the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] process
for the South Bay Salt Pond restoration. NASA is requesting to be a
cooperating agency in this NEPA process.

"NASA Ames is pleased to be a part of the regional wetlands restoration
project and looks forward to working with the Navy to assure the
appropriate cleanup of Site 25 for a fish based ecosystem...."

The attachment shows a new levee and three tidal gates, providing for
tidal marsh on the property owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open
Space District, seasonal tidal march on a section including the area now
known as the "western diked marsh," and a managed pond with a shorebird
breeding/nesting island in the federal portion of the storm water pond.

Note: I have re-keyed and made minor corrections in the text of the
Olliges letter.

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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