Navy Orders Wildlife Area Pollution Tests

The Navy has hired a Woodland Hills consulting firm to conduct tests on the federal wildlife refuge inside the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, an area considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last February to be among the 10 most polluted refuges in the nation.

Weston Designers and Consultants, which was awarded the contract after competitive bidding, will develop a plan to determine what type of testing is to be done, said John Frye, base spokesman.

Frye estimated that actual testing will start in six to seven months.

“We have nine spots here that the Navy found that required further testing,” Frye said Monday. “They (the consultants) will determine how they will be doing testing and what they will be testing for.”

Of the nine sites, five are in the 1,000-acre wildlife refuge area, which is home to several endangered species of birds.

Upon completion of the tests, it will be determined if wastes in the refuge are hazardous under federal standards and if any cleanup is necessary, Frye said.

Base records indicate that an old landfill inside the refuge was used to dump oil from electrical transformers in the late 1960s. There also were reports that solvents and paint cans, battery acid and oil-contaminated waste water were dumped in the salt marsh.

“There is a history where there has been some dumping there 10 to 20 years ago,” said Carey Smith, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Western Region. “In others we just suspect there may be a problem. In Seal Beach we have documentation.”