By Lauren McSherry
The Los Altos-based Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District wants the Navy and NASA, which now operates Moffett Field, to do more than what is proposed in their draft plan to clean up Site 25.
The district has asked the Navy to test a particular levee thought to be contaminated with toxins thoroughly and to do a property-line survey.
However, a letter from the district states it is “generally pleased” with the estimated $6.8 million cleanup, which would restore 210 acres of tidal marshland. The federally designated Superfund site, used as a catch basin for storm water from Moffett Field for 50 years, has sediment tainted with DDT, PCBs, lead and zinc.
The district’s main concern is the levee. But Navy spokeswoman Jill Votaw said by e-mail that the area in question is owned by NASA and is not part of Site 25.
District manager Craig Britton said it doesn’t matter whether the levee is part of Site 25 because contaminants could be leaching out of the fill into district land and surrounding waters during seasonal floods. Potential problems and the cost associated with removal would need to be identified by the Navy if the levee is found to be contaminated, he said.
“Many years ago, NASA started putting dirt out there. We turned them in because they didn’t have a permit,” Britton said. “The question is: Is there contamination under the fill? Even though it’s high and dry, it needs to be tested.”
The Navy disavows responsibility, claiming that NASA is accountable and that the agency is following through.
“Additional testing of the soil in the fill area is currently being accomplished by NASA,” Votaw said. “They will draft a report once testing is complete with options for cleanup of the property.”
She added that the property had been surveyed and that those boundaries will be used in final documents.
The Navy agreed last June to clean up Site 25, the area that borders salt ponds being converted into tidal marshland as part of a massive restoration project. The district owns approximately 55 acres, about a quarter of Site 25.
It acquired the land to fill in a missing link in the Bay Trail. Britton said that for the 28 years he has worked for the district, that stretch of shoreline has remained a gap in the trail.
The Navy is scheduled to finalize the draft plan this month. It must clean up Site 25 and six other Superfund sites before it can abandon the closed Naval Air Station at Moffett Field.
