Navy to retest Moffett Homes Navy to retest Moffett Homes (July 11, 2003)

New study to assess health risks

By Julie O'Shea

Nearly eight months after toxic gas was found inside a Moffett Field housing complex, the Navy said it will team up with the Army to assess health risks faced by military families exposed to a cancer-causing chemical.

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NASA/Ames sharply criticized the Navy early this year for saying that residents of contaminated housing were safe; the Navy based the assertion on a study that calculated health risks based on a small portion of the gas found inside.

But military officials said last month that they plan to conduct additional air tests at these sites, and perform a risk assessment based on these results.

The Orion Park and Wescoat housing areas sit atop an underground plume of trichloroethene (TCE), a solvent leaked into ground water by the Navy and semiconductor companies.

Although elevated levels of the carcinogen -- up to 250 times what EPA says is safe -- were found inside homes last year, the Navy claimed that only a small portion of the gas came from underground. And, Navy officials said, since they were only concerned with the risk of chemicals moving from the ground into homes, they used a controversial computer program to figure out how much of the gas came from underground

The program predicted indoor TCE levels far lower than what is actually inside, and the risk assessment was based on these lower concentrations, rather than the high TCE levels known to be in homes.

Navy spokesperson Lee Saunders said he couldn't discuss specific details of the new testing plan, since it isn't complete yet. He did, however, say that re-sampling homes already tested is under consideration. Also, the Navy plans to take ambient air samples from around the Moffett housing sites and compare them with the TCE-contaminated air found in homes.

In March, the Navy was criticized for using air samples from Redwood City to show that TCE levels found in homes were normal for the area. EPA called the move "misleading," since the Navy did not indicate that the Redwood City samples were taken near a known TCE source.

The only known TCE source at Orion Park is the ground water.

Saunders said the work plan for these latest tests will be made public as soon as it is available. He didn't say when that might be, but indicated it may take a couple of months.

Moffett residents, however, will have a chance to grill both Navy and Army officials during an "open house" scheduled for later this month or next month. Details of this meeting, Saunders said, were discussed at this week's quarterly Restoration Advisory Board meeting, which took place after the Voice went to press.

This "open house," Saunders wrote in an e-mail, "will give the housing residents an opportunity to review the information related to the prior and planned investigations and discuss their questions and concerns with both the Army (and the ) Navy and the regulatory agencies."

In addition to the EPA criticism, the Navy has come under fire from NASA, whose environmental officials worry that, by not starting a cleanup of the underground TCE, the plume is migrating onto -- and possibly contaminating -- NASA property.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com