Navy balks at clean-up Navy balks at clean-up (December 24, 2004)

Criticism mounts over toxic legacy at Moffett

By Jon Wiener

First of two parts

Moffett Field's Hangar One looms over the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, an imposing reminder of the Navy's history in Mountain View and the clouded future of its former base.

Spanning eight full acres and rising 200 feet in the air, the hangar was constructed in 1933 to house the world's largest zeppelin. The 200-ton U.S.S. Macon was lost at sea a year and a half later.

After the Navy transferred Moffett to NASA in 1994, Hangar One became a venue for community events like birthday parties and fairs. But for the last year, it has been nothing but a giant symbol of the toxic pollution at Moffett Field and a lightning rod for controversy.

Decades of Navy use have left Hangar One and other parts of the base so toxic that it may not be safe for the community to use them. Moffett clean-up plans often have led to clashes between the Navy and NASA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the city of Mountain View. And now many in the public are accusing the Navy of dodging its responsibility to clean them up.

The distinctive hangar is one of a handful of toxic sites at Moffett that the Navy has yet to clean up. Local officials have selected the national historic landmark as the future home of a massive aerospace museum. But lead paint and other chemicals inside the building threaten to dash those plans.

"They (the Navy) have a track record at Moffett Field of trying to shirk their responsibilities to clean up the toxic legacy," said Briggs Nisbet, executive director of Save the Bay. Her organization is a 10,000-member environmental group that has waged a four-year public relations campaign to get the Navy to clean up Site 25, a polluted wetland now used as a drainage pond by NASA.

The Navy turned the 2,200-acre Moffett Field over to NASA during a round of military base closures brought on by the end of the Cold War. The base was designated as a Superfund site in 1987, and one of the conditions of the sale was that the Navy became responsible for cleaning up the pollution it left behind.

"The whole idea ... was to close off bases and sell the property so they could use the money to do other things," said Don Chuck, who managed part of the Moffett clean-up effort for the Navy until going to work for NASA as an environmental restoration manager four years ago. "Unfortunately, I don't think they took any of the environmental issues into consideration."

A 1990 agreement between the Navy and NASA declared, "The Navy retains complete responsibility for the actions related to the environmental restoration or remediation of any pollutant, contaminant or hazardous substance" found on the base. The agreement covers jet fuel, chemical solvents, lead, pesticides and other pollution on the base, even if the Navy didn't cause it.
Conflicts flare at citizen forums

The cleanup has frequently pitted the Navy not only against environmental groups like Save The Bay, but also dozens of other concerned residents who make up the local Restoration Advisory Board. Navy officials fly up from their offices in San Diego once a month to report to the restoration board about the ongoing clean-up efforts.

Navy spokesperson Lee Saunders said that the complaints about the Navy's efforts often stem from frustration. Legal requirements tend to draw out the clean-up process, he said, but the Navy is following them closely.

Restoration board member Lenny Siegel is an expert on cleanups at closed military bases and is the director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight. He said the Moffett Field restoration board has been a national model for community involvement, and that the Navy's track record at Moffett brightens considerably when examined in comparison to its actions in other parts of the country.

"Overall, over the years, the Navy's worked very well with the community," added Siegel.

Of 29 polluted sites at Moffett, Navy officials said they have addressed all but five -- Hangar One, Site 25, a drainage ditch known as the Northern Channel and two underground aquifers. The Navy has also been doing some limited testing for toxics at the Orion Park housing development.

The Navy has come under increasing fire at recent restoration board meetings and elsewhere for its clean-up plans at these sites. Activists and government officials alike are slamming the Navy over proposals that they say do not do enough to fix the problem.

The stakes are high in the battle to establish toxic responsibility there. Clean-up costs for Moffett Field have already reached $121 million. And the steps the Navy takes before it completes its work will ultimately determine what the land can be used for in the future.

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

Next week: NASA's plans for the polluted sites and the Navy's response.

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