How to Clean Up El Toro

Cleaning up contaminants at the closed El Toro Marine air base always has been a major challenge facing any reuse plan. Now that a park appears to be the final proposal, it is essential that the U.S. Navy use proceeds from the sale of land at El Toro to pay for cleanup costs.

Navy brass clearly don’t want to open their checkbook for El Toro, one of several former bases in California with the dubious distinction of having been designated as Superfund hazardous waste cleanup sites. The Navy argues that about $300 million previously set aside will cover environmental remediation costs. Truth be told, no one yet knows how extensive and expensive the job will be.

The federal government is obligated to clean up the potential witches’ brew of hazardous and toxic materials generated during more than 50 years of Marine aviation activity. The Great Park now envisioned as a result of a March ballot initiative will rise on ground that has held drainage ditches, sewer systems, underground storage tanks and landfills. Base workers used trichloroethylene to degrease engines, and older electrical transformers were filled with polychlorinated biphenyls. Fuel spills and contamination from battery acids were an inevitable fact of life for decades along the flight line.

The federal government has spent more than $1.6 billion to clean up hazardous and toxic waste at the state’s former military bases. That sounds like a lot of money, but 12 former bases in California alone are on the Superfund list. The Navy will glean a small fortune from land sales. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was right to demand that the money be used to ensure that land being transferred for parkland and related uses is safe.

El Toro’s environmental legacy is underscored by the base’s inclusion on the list of dangerous Superfund sites. Washington’s historical reticence to fund its obligations, however, is a real concern. The prospect of the hard-fought El Toro redevelopment plan being stalled at a critical juncture because Uncle Sam won’t provide the funding is disturbing. Feinstein has identified a reliable source of funding--the proceeds of potentially lucrative land sales at the base--that will keep the costly cleanup on track.

Feinstein’s proposal, made last month in a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England, won’t sit well with the Defense Department. The Armed Forces understandably want to use funds generated by land sales to bridge military funding shortfalls. Feinstein doesn’t have the authority to tell the Navy what to do, but she sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which can apply significant pressure on the Navy.

Turning El Toro into a Great Park means the Navy has an even greater environmental responsibility. When El Toro was being reviewed for a possible commercial airport, the Navy identified 929 more potential environmental hot spots. That review assumed that some environmental problems would remain buried under runways. The level of environmental remediation will increase, however, because parks put people in direct contact with the land.

The Navy says it is committed to cleaning up El Toro. Pledging proceeds of potentially lucrative land sales at the former base would signal that the Navy is taking its promise seriously.