Army holds on plan for training facility Army holds on plan for training facility (January 20, 2006)

Questions remain about Orion Park cleanup

By Jon Wiener

Tuesday's announcement that the Pentagon will delay the coming round of base closures for a year means the Army will have to wait to build a huge new training center at Moffett Field.

An Army colonel came to Mountain View last week to praise plans to knock down military housing at Orion Park to make way for a Combat Support Training Center for the entire West Coast. Col. Scott Wood told members of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) that the project would bring money and jobs to the community, in a brief presentation he gave in response to requests from RAB members.

"From the Army perspective, it appeared this was a great deal for the Mountain View community," he said. "We feel we were more than fair to all the residents, we're creating jobs, and we're bringing money to the economy."

In order to make way for the project, nearly 150 civilian families in Orion Park were scheduled to get eviction notices this month after years of paying below-market rents and getting utilities for free. But Army Reserve public affairs officer Don Sundius said that while he did not know yet know the details, Tuesday's announcement could mean those residents get to stay in their homes for a while longer.

"I do think this will ease some of the short-term concerns for the civilian population," said Sundius.

While Wood touted the benefits of the new construction, most of the assembled residents at last week's meeting were more interested in what it meant for the cleanup of a toxic chemical solvent that has turned up in Orion Park's groundwater.

Results of indoor air testing in homes there have shown that vapors from trichloroethylene (TCE) in groundwater were seeping up through aging foundations, posing a potential long-term health risk to some residents. The Navy will present the results of its most recent sampling for trichloroethylene at Orion Park in early March. But Navy officials continue to deny responsibility for what is likely to be a multi-million dollar clean-up effort.

The new training center will have vapor barriers and an integrated ventilation system in order to prevent any health hazards from vapor intrusion. The government considers the center a commercial building in terms of environmental testing, meaning it will not have to meet the same safety standards as homes would.

But the contaminated groundwater is continuing to flow into the NASA-owned portion of Moffett Field, so pressure to clean up the site will not just disappear with the homes, said Lenny Siegel, RAB member and director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight on Hope Street.

"Unless someone finds a responsible party who can pay for cleanup, it's going to keep coming back to the Navy," said Siegel. "I'm not saying that's fair, but that's the way the law resolves those kinds of issues."

Navy clean-up manager Rick Weissenborn said the Navy, which owned the land until 1994, is trying to reach an agreement with the Army over who will pay for the cleanup.
Locals still waiting for Hangar One report

Weissenborn said the Navy was still on track to release its plan for Hangar One in early February. He said he was expecting to receive a final round of comments from regulators last week.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the report, although the Navy could agree to extend the time frame. In either case, if the Navy recommends demolishing Hangar One, organizing efforts could last much longer.

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

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