Public puts pressure on Navy to clean up Moffett Public puts pressure on Navy to clean up Moffett (July 23, 2004)

Extent of restoration is still undecided

By Jon Wiener

The Navy faced public pressure last year when it agreed to consider turning a Moffett Field drainage pond back into a tidal marsh. Now environmentalists are hoping that it will finally commit to a full restoration.

A dozen members of Oakland-based Save The Bay attended a meeting of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) last week to demand a full cleanup at the site. Backed by several members of the citizens group, they presented the Navy representatives with a letter signed by 16 local organizations, including several based in Mountain View, and unfurled a small banner that read "Navy: Clean up your act. Clean up Moffett."

Officially called Site 25, the land in question currently serves as a storm water retention pond for NASA, collecting run-off from Moffett's runways and drainage ditches during the rainy season. It has been diked off from the bay for decades, and over that time PCBs, DDT and heavy metals from the Navy's operations have seeped into the soil.

The Navy now must decide how thoroughly it will clean up the 250-acre site. It originally proposed a standard that would have ensured the safety of migratory birds that use the pond. A tidal marshland clean-up standard is expected to be much stricter.

It will be more than a year and a half before the Navy completes a feasibility study for the second option. Andrea Espinoza, the Navy's environmental coordinator for the site, said the Navy was sympathetic to Save The Bay's concerns but is handcuffed by federal regulations. According to Espinoza, the Navy must first undergo a series of environmental impact and feasibility studies before determining the stricter clean-up standard and whether to pursue it.

Environmentalists want the land cleaned up to the fullest extent possible and said they can decide whether to actually turn it into marshland later.

"It can never be restored unless the Navy cleans it up," said Sara Brown Riggs, communications director for Save The Bay.

A massive wetlands restoration project for nearby wetlands began Monday, as state and federal wildlife officials began removing barriers on 15,000 acres of former tidal marshland in the South Bay, including adjacent parcels owned by Cargill Salt and the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District. Still, some are skeptical about Site 25's value as tidal marshland.

"It's not even clear it's an ecological benefit," said Sandy Olliges, NASA's environmental chief. Several species of migratory birds use the site in its current condition, and some nearby salt ponds will be left intact to preserve their habitat. But eliminating the pond would also increase the flow of freshwater into the bay, potentially changing the balance of saltwater and freshwater, according to Olliges. NASA discharges to the bay are limited under the Clean Water Act. The Navy plans to hold a public information session in mid-September for interested parties to learn more about its evaluation of the site.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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