Project:
Environmental Document Review
Bottom Line: Summarized numerous documents to highlight major environmental concerns and monitored cleanup by other parties for a client planning to develop parcels of a former military property.
Summary of Project
Orion provided a 3rd-party review of environmental reports prepared by various consultants about a former U.S. Marine Corps air station in Orange County, California. The station was operated for more than 55 years and decommissioned in 1999. It contained four runways, taxiways, hangars, tank farms, landfills, industrial buildings, barracks, officer’s quarters, and various other infrastructure for the air station’s operations. The site operations led to myriad environmental problems requiring ongoing investigation, containment, and cleanup programs, which are being overseen by the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 2005, over 3,700 acres of the site was sold to a real estate development corporation for residential and commercial development.
- Provided comments regarding environmental issues and concerns for the planned future development of two specific parcels that are 1,440 and 329 acres in size.
- Reviewed documents provided by the client, including suitability to transfer, suitability to lease, baseline environmental, and groundwater monitoring reports about the two parcels.
- Highlighted the environmental problems, investigation, and remediation status for the 1,440-acre parcel, which also had another 316 acres of “carve-out” sites of varying size.
- Focused on the 329-acre parcel, which contained highly contaminated areas and the source area for a large diffuse VOC groundwater plume migrating miles off site; per the reports, some acreage would have restricted usage because of the decades required for groundwater cleanup.
- Summarized the historical releases of petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents and identified specific areas for cleanup to allow expedited site redevelopment.