Presentation on Status Report of Environmental Conditions and Clean-up at Alameda Point. (Base Reuse 819099)
But the outline of the presentation is to go over the background history of the base a little bit and then discuss the various but the two important environmental programs that are being used to clean the base up. The status of the clean up and the transfer and land use covenants to restrict the land where that's necessary, where there's not unrestricted use. And then I'll touch briefly on the long term stewardship of the land. Next slide, please. I guess I can do that. I can. Oh, I went the wrong way then. Okay. So just so you know what Alameda used to look like in 1915, the Alameda point basically wasn't there. So. I guess I don't have a. There's a laser. There is I don't think have a battery in this either because they didn't advance it anyway. So. And the figure in the left, there's a North-South rail line or it looks like a road that's roughly where Main Street is today. And you can see there's very little land that is. Yes. So this is the only land that was original part of the island. From time to time, people would say, well, why doesn't the Navy just go in and clean it up the way it used to be? That would essentially involve removing Alameda Point, which nobody really wants. During World War two, the Navy started operations here. In 1940, they bought the land from the from the army, and they have expanded it considerably since the current outline over here goes something like this. It's roughly a third of the city of Alameda. The Navy did everything from soup to nuts here. When they were here, they did refueling of aircraft, refurbishing of aircraft maintenance, had a large residential operation, automotive repair. But a fuel handling. The total acreage is about four and a quarter square miles, but 2700 acres, about 40% of it's under water. The Feds decided to close the base in 1993, and the Navy actually left in 1997. So just for comparison of size, very briefly, on the left is a picture of like Merritt. On the right, of course, is me to point. Which is about 17 times the size of Lake Merritt. This. This is a little washed out, but this shows the. Various cleanup areas at Alameda Point. So what the Navy did originally, along with the regulators, has reviewed all the documentation that was available for Alameda Point, interviewed all sorts of people, decided where the potential to were problems and they investigated them, decided what to do about it if it wasn't clean. And then they have implementing the cleanup. So there are two parallel programs to clean it up. One of them is Superfund. The longhand name for it is Cercla or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Where they have. We call it Cercla, but Cercla does not cover petroleum products. Congress specifically excluded that, but the state of California oversees the cleanup of the petroleum issues that at Alameda Point. The circular part which is the non petroleum had 34 separate areas that were suspected needed to be investigated. Few of them needed no work whatsoever. Some of them need a little work and some of them needed a lot of work. The decision making on how to investigate it and what work to do is carried out by BCT or the BRAC cleanup team. BRAC is an acronym for Base Realignment and Closure. It's the Navy, EPA, Etsy and Water Board and I attend these meetings as well, which I think is fairly unique among any Navy bases that that there are. The Navy's come to accept that it was a little tough at the beginning. We have a restoration advisory board, which is a formal community participation with community members on the board and the BCT members also tend. And participate. Petroleum Cleanup has 23 corrective action areas, which are generally collections of issues such as a tank farm or whatnot. Here is an area where there was a rather large underground leak, and this is the cleanup operation. It has since been successfully finished. Both the both the California and EPA have lots of support people both on staff and as contractors. With the state important roles are handled by. Not only the water board and ETSI, but also CDP, which is the California Department of Public Health, to deal with radiological issues and then see Cdph and California Department of Fish and Wildlife . So the cleanups, the strategy for the cleanup should Alameda point are to use innovative technologies whenever possible ended up as quickly as you can and they usually are able to clean it up. If it's only soil contamination at 1 to 5 years, they can clean it up. If it's groundwater contaminated as well. The initial active remediation is 1 to 5 years, but there's sometimes a tail where there's some residual contamination that gradually gets treated further over time, and there will be generally land use restrictions until that is completed. They were also selecting a remedy. They're mindful of the energy impact. The majority of the base is being cleaned up to residential standards. That's unrestricted. The Navy has spent over half a billion dollars out here so far. That's supporting various regulatory agencies, their own efforts, their contractors. Is the amount that they're spending that they have strictly spent and what they expect to spend. They. They also do some local hiring for their cleanups. A lot of the people who do the work are highly specialized and are not from Alameda. But they still stay at Alameda and they eat at Alameda while they're doing the work. So it's it is does have some economic silver lining to it. So the status quo in property transfer. Initially, the city leased about 1000 acres. A little over 300 acres were had been transferred before 2011 because of the term one, which was an area that had only been leased, Navy never owned it, which is down south easternmost portion along the shoreline, east housing, Coast Guard housing, all that was transferred before 2011. About 1400 acres were transferred in the phase one in 2013. The Veterans Affairs got a large chunk of the runways. Four years ago and about 200 acres are going to be transferred this spring. It's in the phase two. So here's another washed out figure. So the the blue is the part that's already been transferred to the city. The white the large white part is the is the vai. The white to the north is the sports complex that was also transferred the the pinkish, which includes Seaplane Lagoon and the and the the piers and a few other areas around there are going to be transferred that spring. There's a small portion out on the runways as well that's in that transfer. And then the the red and purple or parts are going to be transferred in the future over the next. Five years say. Another show, the environmental sites. We're going to talk about a few of them that have been particularly active lately. By the way, many of these have been cleaned up just because the colors there doesn't mean that is still a big problem. Okay. Here's our site, one, which is a former landfill. It's the original landfill that was at Alameda Point and it's in the northwest corner of the runways. When they needed to expand the runways, they essentially dug it up and moved it to the southeast corner, which is seed for that landfill. But at any rate, this this landfill had quite a bit of soil and groundwater remediation work that needed to be done. The groundwater work, as it looks like it's mostly done. There's a little bit more testing to confirm that. And except for revegetation, which is going on now, the soil cleanup is completely done. So the Navy is really proud of that. And they ought to be because they spent a huge amount of money doing it. Seaplane Lagoon has had its remediation essentially completed. They dug out contaminated sediment in the northeastern north west corners that had become contaminated from from material that came down the industrial waste lines from building five mainly and contaminate the sediment. And the Navy moved about 100,000 cubic yards, tried it, tested it, disposed most of it out. Is part of the remediation landfill. Some of it got hauled off site. In the process of doing that, they found 51. Very small items embedded in the sediment that had radio luminescent paint on them like on it, like on a Timex watch or something in the old times. As a result of that which no one knew about when they did the original cleanup decision making, as a result of that, they are amending the the official cleanup remedy to require that any future dredging there be conducted consistent with a sediment management plan which is currently being drafted. An approved. And this is the third site that I want to talk about that is that is actually is active now just for reference. Seaplane Lagoon is is over. People going is here. Main Street is here. Atlantic is here. This is the oval with the airplane right there. So this this blue feature here is groundwater contamination that came mainly from these brown. Hotspots, which is what we'll say, which are where solvents, mainly degreaser, is from. The Navy's operations largely related to this building 3060 got into the groundwater and very slowly migrated over to Seaplane Lagoon. And Navy is has done considerable cleanup there. They are going to do quite a bit more cleanup above this line. Is land that's going to be transferred this spring. So there was that there was. Some saw contamination there, which the Navy has successfully cleaned up. There is one small area here that has cobalt in soil that is unacceptable for residential use. So it's going to be used for a park, completely fine for a park. The only other area where there is soil contamination that requires a restriction upon transfer is the small area right here. In both this case and this case, the reason why the Navy isn't digging it out and hauling it away the same as they did up here is because it is underneath buildings. If it ever makes a difference that this contamination here is actually quite shallow under the building. It would not be a huge effort to clean it up. Anybody want to do that? But since you're going to put a park there, it doesn't matter. See, this is the. I guess we're talking about four sites tonight. Sorry. So this is this is building five. Which was this along with the site that we've talked about just before, or neck and neck for the most contaminated sites at this point. And that's why the ones that they're still working on. Low hanging fruit has been already addressed. There is groundwater where these. Blue Circles are that still needs to be cleaned up in order for it to be acceptable for commercial use. Once that's done, the entire footprint of the building will be acceptable for commercial use but not residential. Same is true for building 400 right here. Those slabs will have to be maintained intact because there is contamination in the soil under them, which is not a problem as long as these slabs are in place. But because they used to drive airplanes on, slabs are over a foot thick. So nobody's really going to get to it. If anybody has to dig through it, they can get permission to do that so long as they, you know, provide a work plan that shows how they're going to do it safely. Then restore the floor. Related to this building is an industrial waste line that is shown here. So is building five again. And again, in Building five, they used to work on radio, luminous radio luminescent paints for refurbishing dials and stuff like that that clean their brushes in sinks. And before the Clean Water Act that all went out in the storm sewer and got routed down to Seaplane Lagoon where it contaminated the sediment. And as they told you, they cleaned that up for. So as a result, is the potential that these lines also were could have been contaminated. They've done a lot of testing on them and they have shown that the contaminant levels are much lower than where than what they had feared initially. And we're looking at some use restrictions so that if they're all on the streets, if anybody ever digs there, they have to follow certain procedures. Decision making is not quite done on it. So there's land use covenants in a few areas that aren't available for unrestricted use. This is run by Dtsc since after it's closed, EPA generally federal EPA generally balance out and involves annual inspections, at least in monitoring. In some cases, it depends upon what the residual material is. And then ditzy sort of remains involved essentially forever if there if there is any contamination that that remains. For example, they they work with this outfit called Pterodactyl so that if anybody ever. It's a permit to dig in order to dig. You have to if to check with utilities and whatnot, it's he gets a call if that location is within an area that has a restriction on it. And then DTC gives me a call or somebody at the city to see whether they've actually. Whether they're violating the restriction or not. Wherever there is any contaminants remaining, the Navy and the regulators do a five year review just to make sure that the remedy that they have selected remains protective, that there isn't any advancement in science that shows that it's worse than they had thought, or that some other reason, it's just not it's just not as protective as they had intended it to be. This is the last slide. So if people want to participate, I strongly urge membership and attendance to the RAB Restoration Advisory Board. The Navy's website is there. The information repository. This wanted me to point in building one. I think that room number may be obsolete, but I don't know the current one. But staff at Public Works and first floor. They'll tell you where it is in the library across the street also has many of the more recent documents. That's it. Thank you for the presentation and council comments. Remember Daisuke? I think the quick comment I just want to say is for the residents of Alameda who are watching or who might watch subsequently via the Internet. This is incredibly important. We, the City Council on behalf of residents, will soon be accepting certain properties. We have accepted, gone through a similar process previously. Several years ago, I think it was two years ago. And now we're continuing that. So this is incredibly important that we exercise our due diligence and make sure to ask a lot of important questions. Thank you. I swear. Can I ask if there is a any kind of funding from the Navy? Or Department of Defense just to pay for the sediment management that's now required because there was contamination that was previously not found and not remediated in the seaplane lagoon. I understand that there is insurance or a future development. There's like three levels of insurance that the cleanup. But there's an added burden now of whoever takes that land, which our next agenda item is us for having a sediment management plan if we ever want to dredge it. And that's an additional cost over and above a standard of. The regular bay restrictions that we have so can address. Yeah. No, no, there isn't. I mean, there's no I mean, the institutional control that was changed in the plans of Peter was talking about was to essentially require this added layer of review. I mean, so there and potential a work plan and approach to how we would do it if we were to dredge in one of so that they they are not I mean that's what's put in place is to have to follow those procedures if and when someone does and there is some additional costs related to managing that sediment. I will say, though, that we did as part of our, you know, analysis and due diligence of this whole process for the Seaplane Lagoon was actually had conducted a Bathymetric survey updated one which essentially means like a topographical survey of the bottom of the sea plate lagoon and determine that it is a very deep lagoon. And in working through the ferry terminal, for instance, we know that we can construct a ferry terminal, that dredging that there would be very little, very little dredging, maintenance shoaling, it's called where the sediment comes in and, you know, builds up and then you got to dredge it. Maintenance dredges, very minimal maintenance dredging, very little shoaling. And so we feel there's actually very little cost implication related to that sediment. And I will say if the dredging in and of itself is very expensive, no matter what, whether or not, you know, wherever you're dredging and there are other contaminants and other things in the soil or in the sediment. And so if we did have to dredge at some point, we don't think we will for the fact we're I'm sure we're, in fact, designing the terminal around making sure we don't have to dredge. And we think there's very little maintenance dredging, you know, to extent. There's a project that's unforeseen at this point that has to dredge. It will be it will not be inexpensive. And we want to try to design it to try to minimize the dredging because of those costs. But um, yeah. That is an important point though, because. I thought I saw somewhere where the married is there reviewing their options, particularly with regard to the matter of dredging. Since the marriage, ships have to be ready to move on a certain notice and that would then have ramifications to the city of Alameda since marriage ships are such a large customer of of of of amp. So I think. There's a lot of interrelated moving parts. And that's why, you know, a presentation like this evening on this is incredibly important. And just because it's important as two tier two differences. One is that the shipping channel does show pretty significantly. And so that is part of the problem is that it does the sediment comes in and builds up and then it has to be dredged pretty regularly. And then the second issue is the Marriott ships are very big and require a certain depth. And so what we foresee occurring in the lagoon we have one benefit is it doesn't show very, almost very little falling to none. And then second is that we don't anticipate that those types of ships in the lagoon, we anticipate ferries and recreational boating and things like that that don't require that same sort of depth. So we have two benefits in the lagoon that are very different from the the shipping channel and the marriage ships. Great. Thank you. The other comments, I want to thank Mr. Russell for your service. You've been doing this for 18 years for our city. You also attend the Restoration Advisory Board meetings, and I would encourage community members to attend the meetings. You don't have to be a member to attend. It's open to the public. They're very educational. And is there any chance you happen to know when the next meeting is? You guys just have one January 14th? Yeah, it's pretty. Every two months. So it'll be sometime in mid-March. And there is a Facebook page for community members to find it on there, too. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. And that's just a presentation, so we don't need to vote. However, it's almost 11:00, so we need a motion to continue our meeting. So moved. Second, all those in favor I motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Now we're on six f. Adoption of resolution authorizing the city manager to accept on behalf of the city certain surplus federal property into accept, execute and record conveyance documents in substantial conformance with certain fees to property conveyance documents from the United States of America acting by and through the Department of the Navy to implement the Economic Development Conveyance Agreement for the former