Presentation on Status Report of Environmental Conditions and Clean-up at Alameda Point. (Base Reuse 819099)
That. Oh. Good evening, Mayor. City Council. My name's Jennifer. I'm the chief operating officer for Alameda Points, and I'm here tonight with a couple of items that are really information focused status reports on efforts going on. And I'm going to point out in a for Alameda point, it's been you know, the base was closed in 97. There's been a lot going on over the last 20 years there. So there's it's a chance for us with a new council to come out and provide updates on some of these important efforts that we're doing. The first tonight is on the environmental program, the second on. Right now, I'm going to actually turn this presentation over to the city's independent environmental consultant, Peter Russell, who's been working on behalf of the city as an independent reviewer of the Navy's environmental cleanup process. That leads very closely into the conveyance and ultimately the development process as well. So I work with Peter almost on a daily basis, and he'll be presenting today giving the Council an overview of how the environmental cleanup works at the base, touching on a couple of key sites. And then he and I both are here to answer questions. Any questions that you may have. Thank you very much. We have two speakers, but that goes after the presentation, right? All right. Good evening, Mayor Spencer and members of the city council. My name is Peter Russell. I'm a consultant for the city of Alameda for environmental issues, primarily at Alameda Point tonight. I want to provide a status report on environmental conditions at Alameda Point. It's an update to a presentation I gave in 2011. There's several new faces here, so I plan on dwelling on the slides only very briefly because I know you have a full agenda tonight and you can stop me if you need me to pause for anything. And I apologize in advance for not catching all the acronyms I'm likely to slip out because Alameda Point is full of acronyms. So tonight I'm going to talk about the background and history of Alameda Point, the environmental program with the state and federal regulators and how they work with the Navy and the city status of the clean up and property transfer. And then a few special topics that are particularly active now at Alameda Point. These two maps show what Alameda Point looked like before the Navy started showing it in at least the 1915 one does. 1942. Most of it had been filled in because the air base was geared up for World War Two. And the airbase continued through World War Two of the Korean conflict and closed in 1997. The base takes up approximately 2700 acres, and it was the site of many diverse activities, not only residential and some commercial, but various industrial activities. As a result, certain pieces of the base have contamination on them that the Navy is cleaning up. For comparison, the figure on the left is Lake Merritt and then Alameda Point is on the right. These two are drawn to the same scale, so you can get a visual image of the relative size of Alameda. Point to the local features. So an important fundamental concept to understand for the environmental cleanup at Alameda Point is that there are two parallel programs. One of them is the petroleum program, which has no federal involvement that is operated solely by the state of California. And then there is the circular program. It's an acronym for a real time trustee. You can read it there that involves many more agencies, including the federal government. Together, they they deal with all the environmental issues. The map on the right shows, the areas, although it's a little washed out, shows the areas where environmental issues are being addressed. You can see that. Well, first, the western portion is largely broken into runways with a landfill in the northwest corner and a landfill in the south in the north. In the southwest corner. And then there were industrial activities in the southeast to the east of Seaplane Lagoon and immediately north of Seaplane Lagoon. The balance of it was open space or housing. The first. I want to talk about the Circle program. This is everything but petroleum. So there is a BCT, an acronym for the BRAC cleanup team. BRAC itself is an acronym for base reuse and alignment. Cleanup that that includes the Navy, of course, the responsible party. And then the EPA represented federal interests along with the Navy. And the state of California. Has the Department of Toxic Substances Control or DTC and the Water Board, which pays particular attention to groundwater issues and surface water issues. And the city of Alameda participates in the BCT discussions as an observer. The Restoration Advisory Board is very important at Alameda Point. It's commonly called the RAB. There are several RAB members here tonight. These people have become quite knowledgeable about the environmental issues at Alameda Point and many of them put in quite a few hours keeping abreast of the issues and intelligently commenting on the on the current topics. The Petroleum program. Again, this is the complement to the Cercla program includes anything that had to do with petroleum. It was a lot of fuel handling at Alameda Point. So there are a couple of locations where there were tank farms. There were pipelines going around there, even a couple of gas stations. Many of these have contamination, but all of them are being investigated, investigated to either determine the extent of contamination or to rule out contamination. And where contamination is present, the Navy is cleaning it up. The the state and federal environmental regulators have lots of support, people with different disciplines that are brought to bear on the issues at LME two point. The clean ups that the Navy and the regulators agree upon. Whenever possible, clean to unrestricted use, which means residential use. Alameda Point uses innovative technologies whenever they can. They have they have lots of experts who are well versed with with. Clean up state of the art. And wherever possible, shorter duration clean ups are selected over a longer duration clean ups. This is just a slide of the Navy's funding and projected funding. And as you can see, for the last several years, their budget has dropped. So I wanted to talk briefly about the status of property cleanup and transfer. Until 2013, the city of Alameda leased about 1000 acres, a little more than a thousand acres in 2013, 1379 acres are transferred to the city. The Navy no longer owns them, so of course they no longer lease. And there are only there there are less than 500 acres left to be transferred. This. This image shows the facing the blue is the is the area that's already been transferred. The white is staying in federal ownership and the the other colors are imminent or within the next 5 to 7 years for transfer. This is another slide of the environmental sites that appeared earlier on in the comparison. I believe it is the comparison with Lake Merritt. These are two slides that just show the progress that is being made in the clean up. The investigation and remediation of these environmental sites is a very methodical process that goes from investigation to decision making about how best to clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up and then actually implementing the cleanup. The Green Arrow on this slide is the only one that is completely cleaned up yet. However, there are quite a few sites that are completely cleaned up and as you can see, many sites are are in the cleanup stage. So it's a matter of a few years before they'll be done. So now I want to speak about three sites that are that are actively being cleaned up now or an active decision making . One is either site one. Air is an acronym for installation restoration. And this is a former landfill in the northwest corner of Alameda Point. There was groundwater and soil contamination there and the Navy has completed the initial treatment of the groundwater. It will do long term monitoring. And for the past two years, they've been working on the soil contamination and expect to finish that this year. That will be available for passive recreational use. Seaplane Lagoon. In the two northern corners of Seaplane Lagoon, there were storm drain outfalls. And in the early years before the Clean Water Act, the Navy, like most other industries, discharged their industrial wastewater into the storm drains. So that all went out to Sea Plain Lagoon. Much of it flowed out and was gone. But some of the sediment settled in the corners near the outfalls, and the Navy has completed the dredging of that and done the confirmation sampling. And the regulators are all in agreement that they have cleaned up all of that excess contamination and the process of doing so. You may have heard that several small switches and dials were found embedded in the sediment very sparsely, that had fluorescent luminescent paint on them, which has a very low level of radioactivity. This is similar to baby bin alarm clocks and luminous wristwatches that you may have seen, and that is the only remaining issue that is still being discussed before. Seaplane Lagoon is completely finished. This is a probable unit to be. It's it's to the east of Seaplane Lagoon. It's near the east entrance to Alameda Point. And there was an industrialized area there where several different locations experienced spills of degreaser and solvents, which resulted primarily in groundwater contamination. That's the blue area that you see in the center of the figure. The Navy is completing its decision making on how best to clean that up and what cleanup levels are appropriate for that. There are lots of interested regulatory agencies and the city is also participating in that dialog. And then finally, this is Building five, the largest building on the base. It's to the north of Seaplane Lagoon. It also had industrial operations. Inducted there. And the decision making is completed. The Navy is drawing up plans for the for the cleanup, which is primarily going to be focused on solvents and groundwater, essentially the same situation that was at OYU to be to the east of Seaplane Lagoon. And the areas that are that are going to be most intensively managed are within the blue dashed lines. This is the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Overall program is just a little cartoon of how they continue their their involvement even after cleanup is completed. So in some areas, in the few areas where there are ongoing restrictions because of, say, contamination that is deep, that was not feasible to remove the DTC contracts with an outfit called Terror Decks that alerts it whenever anybody is going to do any digging so that they can make sure that the that the digging is handled responsibly . Wherever there is any residual contamination that does not allow unrestricted use or unlimited exposure, then the Navy and the regulators reconvene to to focus on that site every five years, at least once every five years, to see whether there has been any advances in. In toxicology. Changes in regulations. Any invalid assumptions where they should revisit their decision to decide whether it continues to be effective even after the full BCT is is finished. The DTC remains involved in perpetuity. And it's just contact information for for the Navy. Base Environmental Coordinator and for the information repositories where anybody can receive a document to review and and comment at the wrap. Thank you. Thank you. So at this point, do we take our. Speakers or council comments? The Sunshine Ordinances. If there's council questions, you should address those first and then call the speakers and then you can have more counsel discussion following the speakers. Their counsel questions. I could do mine after the speakers. Anyone else? Any questions? I'm going to go ahead and call our speakers. Thank you, Kurt Peterson. Harry. Let me. I can. It's Curt, but can I have a slip for you on this one? I only have Kurt. So maybe there's. Maybe you'd like to fill out a slip. And then next to be Susan Gallimore after him. Yes. Again, my name is Kurt Peterson. Thank you for allowing me to address you tonight on this issue. I've been a member of the Restoration Advisory Board as a committee member for since 2000. So over 15 years, I first became a member as far as the RAB because I was always very concerned for the safety as far as the cleanup out at the base of a very close to it. But one of the key purposes I was always on the board is the concern that I have as far as any kind of lawsuits or extra hidden charges that might be gathered as far as from the city when they took over the base property. One of the things I want to thank, Mayor Spencer and Congress Councilman Hardy as far as attending our last RAD meeting. Thank you very much. I know that we've changed, you know, a lot of this particular board. I just want to make sure that you are aware that there are numerous institutional controls involved with this property. And I would hope, though, you have other governing boards to look at it. I would hope that our attorney would look very carefully as far as to make sure that we aren't liable for any situation. It could be as simple as digging a hole for a tree in an unknown spot, especially 15 or 20 years from now . I just want to make sure the city, as you as members of the representatives of the city, are aware of this and that it could be hidden costs. And when you look at this, you look at that very carefully. And I know we have some other people that like to speak on this, too. Thank you very much. Thank you. Susan Gallimore. Hi, I'm Susan Gallimore and it was Curt on the Reb. I'm on the Reb. I've served now for probably about ten. Years. And this year I am the co-chair, so you might be seeing more of me. I also wanted to say that thank you, Mayor, for coming. We really appreciate it. I know Frank Matarese has been many times and we are looking forward to you being back at the Reb and Jim Odey was there recently. So I'm basically here today to introduce you all and the rest of the audience here to the REB members, many of whom are here today. I'm not going to reintroduce Curt, but I want to recognize George Humphreys and I'm going to ask people if they could just stand up. George. George is invaluable. He's an engineer. He helps us understand a lot of the chemical stuff. Um. Dr. Carol Goodstein is here. There she is. Burt Morgan. I don't think he's here tonight. He's been on the air for about 15 years. Jane Seewald. She's a new member and she's the vice co-chair this year. Skip McIntosh I don't think we're here tonight, but he's our geologist. Michael John. Tory. Victor Quintel is a new but he worked on the on the base for about 30 years so he knows a lot I would say where the bodies are buried, but I'm not going to do that. Dale Smith, she's not here tonight. We recognize her. William Smith, I know is. And Richard Bangert and Jim Sweeney is not here tonight. So again, I want to thank and recognize these people. They have put in years and years and years and years of work and enormous amounts of reading. And it's all very important, as Peter pointed out, that we go forward and, as could pointed out, understanding what we are going to be liable for in the future. And I also wanted to tell people here tonight that every year the Navy puts on a tour and it's open to the public. Anybody can come. It's a bus. And they take you beyond the fence where there's a fence beyond which you may not go. And this one takes us out to all of these sites that were mentioned tonight. And please come, because there's an enormous amount of work going on there these days, a lot of contouring, a lot of covering, a lot of institutional controls, really important stuff and also very interesting. So thank you very much. Thank you. To. Yes. I miss him. Do you know the date of the next? We are busy setting it so it will be sometime in June or July. I'm going to try and make sure that the newspaper advertises that. So. Yeah. Yeah, we certainly will. I mean, the more that more people that come out there, the better. So thank you. And I can share. The next meeting is March 12th. The meetings are always 630 to 930. We are posting those dates on our city's calendar. So and they are open to the public. You are all welcome to come to join us in City Hall West. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone that does serve on this. This is actually a real important part of Alameda. We all we all want that cleaned up. And I really appreciate all the service of the Navy to help us in that regard. Comments So as far as I know, no more speakers. No. Okay. Than Council comments. Okay. Comment unless someone else wants to. Go, go ahead. So I guess the speaker said I was at the red meeting on January 8th, a very interesting meeting, in-depth analysis of all the cleanup efforts out there. And one of the presentations we heard that day was on what the test results and plans for site 32, which is the Northwest Territories, out the area, out past the antiques fair I believe it's owned open space and the Fish and Wildlife biological opinion describes a park envisioned there for 147 acres along the Oakland estuary and that includes site 32. We're going to talk a little bit more about, you know, the community's vision for wetlands out there later. But I know for the most part over the years on the council, we really haven't submitted any comments on proposed cleanup remedies or alternatives, although Dr. Russell has submitted plenty of comments on our behalf. But in this case, I think it might be a good idea if the City Council is in the loop on this one, depending on whether or not there are institutional controls placed on the site restricting, digging, how those restrictions are worded, or even if there are none at all, for example, that will have a bearing on the future cost and hurdles in removing all of the remnant pavement, bunkers and on buildings so a park can be developed, you know, has often the case. This Rabb presentation came ahead of the official release of a site to investigation, report and feasibility study, which I believe is expected in early February. And there's a comment period. I'm not sure if it's 30 or 60 days. And then one of the criteria in the approval process of a circular superfund remedy is community acceptance. So I'd like to talk about this in February in the Council with with the rest of council, with staff, Dr. Russell and the community, when the alternatives are clearly spelled out. So maybe we can favor one of the alternatives. Comments. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a very important issue. You know, many years ago, when we started the process of redoing what was then called east housing and building what ultimately became the Bayport community. Many years ago at the time we had gone through a lot of levels of approval when it comes to cleanup. Having not only gone through the federal process, but also having gotten signed off by the state, D.C. Department, toxic controlled substance substances, controls. And even after having gone through those different layers, you know, we still had to deal with this one item that just popped up, which was unexpected. Fortunately, we had our insurer who covered the cost of it. But the lesson from from certainly Bayport and you know, it was something fortunately that we could treat, but it was you know, the lesson of that is, you know, we all we have to be vigilant and push as hard as we can because even with these layers that we have in place and we might have to, you know, step in, though, as we did in the case of Ice House in Bayport at the time. I remember comments. Vice Mayor. Yes. A thank you for that report, Dr. Russell, and thanks to all the members of The Wrap for their their hard work. And, Daryn, I think it was between 2006 and 2010 of when the Ora Alameda Reuse and Restoration Authority, I'm not sure I got that acronym right. It was a at each meeting there was a report from the RAB via the council liaison with myself at the time, and we did provide many comments to records of decisions and also questions back to Drew, our consultant to the Navy. And I think it's extremely important not only for the the future use of these lands, but also the fact that almost half a billion dollars or a little more than half a billion dollars has been spent to date. And there's still another 84, 85 million that is yet to be spent for continued cleanup. And I hope this council assigns a grab lays out so it's not an occasional visit by a council member, but someone is assigned the task of reporting back to the successor organization on what what the council might want a question direct comment on regarding what the Navy's plans, their records of decision and any other related. Cleanup activities, two properties certainly that we're going to inherit or that's going to remain. You know, I think that's really important to establish that as a formal formal function with reporting that at our successor agency meeting. So in regards to that, for those of you that don't know, we do have a special meeting tomorrow night when we're going to be talking about, I think, things like that. And it's a public meeting. It's going to be here 630. And you can find the agenda online that we're going to be talking about us working together, moving forward, along with staff. And so that is something we can look for at that time. Yes. Thank you, Mary Spencer. And I just wanted to echo a thank you to all the members of the RAB Board. I will make it to one of your meetings, maybe the next one, but I appreciate any of the volunteer boards and commissions that we have in this city. We're kind of one two. But you you do a lot of work and that's a really in-depth one. And thank you for your service to the community. So I do have a question. Occasionally, I'll be asked by a member of the public How safe is it for them to go out? And sometimes in regards to the specific area where they may be working or or, you know, taking their children and whatnot. So my question really is, if someone has a specific concern, who should they contact? I know they can go to the RAB meetings themselves, which are public and we discuss that. But if they aren't able to do that, what other suggestions do you have? Oh, you know I can I'll speak to and then have Peter if he has other but definitely. Derek Robinson with the Navy his contact information he is the Navy's point person on environmental issues at the base of you can always contact him from the Navy's perspective, but they're also welcome to contact me directly. And then I can find that answer, you know, via Peter or via the Navy and try to be a conduit and try to get those answers as fast as possible. So my contact information is on the website. I'm, you know, JROTC at Alameda, CA dot gov. Happy to answer those questions that anyone may have. And for Derek Robinson, I'm just I have it on here. I can read it. The phone number 6195320951 and then his email derrick d r e k dot j dot Robinson, the number one at Navy Mail. And then so between the two of you. Yes. And I would actually strongly encourage anyone, if you have questions, reach out to these people because they they can help you track down the answers and then you can be assured. Absolutely. That's what we're here for. Yes. Is so Ms.. Ah, if you can help me understand, would the public have access now to areas that are not cleaned up to a level that is considered safe or is that somehow roped off or. Well, it depends on what the contamination is. I mean, Peter can speak to it more about, for instance, where there's groundwater contamination and there's there's not an issue with, you know, someone walking over that property, then there won't be any restriction. It's really the long term. So in some cases it may just be the long term exposure to something. In other cases, it's being cleaned up actively. The Navy may want to, you know, create a fence to make sure no one gets into it. No one interferes with their cleanup process. So it really depends on on the issue. But I can say that we wouldn't have open any area that wouldn't be safe for people to to walk around. I mean, we the Navy is very careful about that type of liability. We are. So if it's not fenced off or doesn't say anything, then it is it is safe to to be there, you know. I'd just like to add just a little bit to that. I showed a slide that had the process that the Navy goes through to investigate and then clean up. What's not shown there is that the the initial examination looks at imminent threats, and if it finds any, it usually doesn't. But if it does, those are cleaned up immediately without waiting for the long term decision making about how to deal with the site as a whole. You may see some areas that are fenced off also because the Navy is actively working on them and there are just construction hazards, not not so much contamination. Hazards as construction hazards. And those move around as their activity moves. Thank you very much. Any other comments? We can move on to the next agenda. Item six f. Is right. Hesitation on Friday development at Alameda Point, including initial development concept. Even the mayor, council members. Jennifer, our chief operating officer, allow me to point out this is the first meeting of the new city council. We'll be discussing the development plans that have been in the works and that are ongoing at Alameda points related to site A and I'll talk a little bit about what that is exactly. First, and this is the first time that the community will be able to comment publicly on the development concept that's been put forward by the proposed developer for for site a before delving into to the site a process.