County to Seek More Soil Tests at El Toro

Orange County will ask the Department of the Navy to examine 56 additional areas of potential contamination at the former El Toro Marine base, including testing soil in several of those areas.

Among the spots added by county environmental consultants to the 929 existing “locations of concern” are the base’s four runways, which aren’t on the Navy’s list of sites for further examination and cleanup. Two of the runways stretch 10,000 feet; the others are 8,000 feet.

“We haven’t seen any evidence that the Navy has done a systematic look around the runways,” Mark Schultheis, the El Toro project manager for environmental consultant Geosyntech Inc., told county supervisors Tuesday.

County and Navy officials will meet in coming weeks to discuss adding the 56 sites to the 929 already identified by the Navy, said Gary Simon, the county’s El Toro program manager. The Navy’s cleanup plan addresses 880 of the 929 sites; the remainder were determined not to need cleaning up.

Of the total number of sites, 643 require no further action, according to the county report. Some additional analysis is needed for the rest, the report said, including 115 sites needing “soil management.”

The county next will ask the Navy’s permission to conduct bore-hole testing of the soil in certain areas, Simon said. The Navy previously has refused to allow such testing at the base’s landfills, which will be covered with either clay or clay and a thick plastic membrane.

“This is going to be a hot topic between us and the Navy, I suspect,” Simon said.

Navy officials said they couldn’t comment on the Geosyntech analysis because they hadn’t reviewed it yet. But they said eventual soil testing is possible, as long as the testing is cleared in advance with the Navy and appropriate environmental agencies, and the county addresses the liability posed by such testing.

“If the county feels that they want to go beyond [the Navy work] for their own due diligence, that they need to do sampling on some sites, it’s fine to proceed but they need quality control and a safety plan,” said Dean Gould, the Navy’s environmental coordinator for El Toro.

County consultants said they spent six months reviewing more than 100,000 pages of environmental documents compiled by the Navy and other federal agencies. The 4,700-acre base is listed by the federal government as a Superfund site, a designation given to the most polluted properties in the country.

The county’s environmental assessment--including what areas should be tested and the risk of discovering contamination--was based on future use of the land as an airport, where much of the acreage would be restricted, consultants told supervisors Tuesday. If the base is used for something else, the risk assumptions would be different, they said.

“The users largely dictate the risk,” Schultheis said. “If it’s paved, that’s one view of risk. If it’s going to be used for homes, for example, you have a very different view of risk.”

An initiative to replace airport zoning at the base with park and nature preserve uses, as well as other development, will be before voters in March. But the board’s pro-airport majority Tuesday rejected a plan to spend another $100,000 for consultants to evaluate the environmental risks of building such a park at El Toro.

“I think it’s appropriate to consider [the evaluation] once we know the results of March 5,” board Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad said. She was joined in voting against the expenditure by Supervisors Jim Silva and Chuck Smith. Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson voted in favor of an environmental evaluation of the park plan.

The consultants’ report was based on the use of El Toro for a commercial airport that would handle 18.8 million passengers a year by 2020. A more detailed environmental analysis, including “more intrusive” testing, will begin early next year, Simon said.

Supervisors have insisted that the county understand the risk posed by military contamination before taking control of the property for an airport--a process now cast into doubt by the park initiative.

Recent polls have shown that voter support for the county’s airport plan is fading.

The county’s environmental attorney, John Schlotterbeck, said the county has some risk if it takes the property, even though the Navy is required to clean up any military contamination discovered later.

The issue of environmental contamination at El Toro came to the forefront last week when environmental attorney Greg Hurley, chairman of the panel overseeing the Navy’s cleanup plan for the base, declared that uncharted contamination made building a park there too risky. Building an airport also would expose contamination but at much less risk to the public, he said.

Hurley’s comments, delivered at a luncheon sponsored by two pro-airport groups, caused a storm of controversy in south Orange County, where the bulk of residents oppose an airport. Some called for Hurley’s resignation as the chairman of El Toro’s environmental advisory board because he was paid for preparing his analysis by airport backers.

Hurley said his conclusions were based on his seven years on the environmental panel plus a report in 2000 by Irvine, refuted by the Navy, that concluded people could be exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in base soil without knowing it.

Hurley defended his work for the pro-airport group, saying he’d also sent letters at Irvine’s request--without pay--asking the Navy for additional toxics testing.

Wilson on Tuesday asked Schultheis about Hurley’s conclusions. The consultant said some of Hurley’s concerns have been addressed by the Navy. He said the county also will insist on soil testing, though not as extensive as Hurley suggested.

Environmental cleanup has dominated negotiations for the reuse of military properties around the country.

The current federal budget earmarks a total of $139 million for cleanup of closed bases--a fraction of the expected cleanup cost for most bases. A final dollar figure for El Toro’s cleanup hasn’t been determined, Navy officials said. They have spent about $200 million so far.