Nearly Two-Thirds of El Toro Air Base Free of Toxic Waste, Report Says : Military: Minimal cleanup costs are suggested for acreage that county would sell or lease after Marine facility closes.

EL TORO MARINE BASE — Nearly two-thirds of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is free of toxic waste contaminants and can be turned over to the county with only minimal cleanup costs, a military environmental study showed.

The findings suggest that Orange County officials can sell or lease most of the 4,700-acre base not included for a commercial airport when the base closes. The Marines are scheduled to leave El Toro for Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego by 1999.

“It means that the uncontaminated properties can be available for transfer to the county and leasing quicker,” El Toro spokesman Lt. Brad Bartelt said. “However, the [clean] properties aren’t contiguous, and it will be up to county’s reuse authority to decide what to do with them and how to use them.”

County officials said they have not seen the report, which was conducted by the Navy, but they hailed the findings as good news. The study, called the Environmental Baseline Survey, also received the qualified endorsement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

“In general, we do think that it’s good news. A large percentage of the base is clean,” said Kari Rigoni, Orange County project manager for El Toro. “But we still have to do our own study of those areas and will use the [Navy] report for a continuing study.”

“We have not seen a full report,” Rigoni added. “They showed us a map showing the areas that were clean. That’s all we’ve seen.”

Bartelt said the largest area of contamination is near the airfield, where a plume of ground water has been contaminated by solvents, aviation fuel and batteries that were dumped or buried years ago when federal environmental laws were lax.

The areas free of contamination include the base’s golf course and the properties where about 5,500 housing units were built. Agricultural fields around the base’s perimeter were also declared free of contamination, said Bartelt.

El Toro has been a Marine air base for 50 years and has accommodated helicopters and both propeller-driven aircraft and jets.

Measure A, which was approved by county voters in November, set aside 2,000 acres of the base for a commercial airport to be built on the site of the present airfield after the Marines leave and the facility is turned over to the county.

Paul Reyff of the Pentagon’s Office of Economic Adjustment in Sacramento said the El Toro airfield will not require extensive decontamination because “the civilian use will be compatible with the military use” of the facility.

Under federal law, the cleaning of toxic wastes buried under or around the airfield “doesn’t have to be as thorough” if a commercial airport is built on the site, Reyff said. But if contaminated properties are to be developed for residential or “non-compatible” uses, the cleanup requirements are stricter, he said.

Bartelt said the federal government is obligated to pay for the cleanup of the base. The Defense Department has not estimated the cost of cleaning up El Toro alone, Bartelt said. But a Pentagon study estimated it would cost about $300 million to decontaminate the Marine bases at El Toro, Tustin and Camp Pendleton and the Navy base at Miramar, he added.

David Wong, head of the base closure program of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said, “We concurred with their findings only on the basis of the information given to us.”

In a March 24 letter to EPA officials in Washington, Wong said the state’s acceptance of the Navy study was “not a waiver of any right of the state to require any remedial or removal action” in the future.

Another letter, written to Navy officials the same day by Julie Anderson, EPA official in charge of cleanup at military bases, said the agency accepted the findings of the study. But EPA approval of the study also was conditional.

The EPA letter said the findings were accepted “without any independent investigation or verification of the information contained therein,” and the agency reserved the right to demand further cleanup in the future if required.

Before the base is turned over to Orange County, the secretary of the Navy must approve a reuse plan for the facility and an environmental impact study must be conducted. In addition to the EIS, the county could also be required to do a more environmental report before its reuse plan is given final approval.