Landfill 8, Landfill 10: Cleanup Decision Document to be Released
On November 17, 2008 the Presidio Trust will release a decision document to remediate Landfills 8 and 10 on the Presidio of San Francisco. The Trust does not propose to remove either of these landfills, but to contain the waste in place.
We’ve talked about the historic importance of Landfill 8 previously, noting that the landfill covers an historic Merchant Marine cemetery with 30,000 cubic yards of contaminated waste. Read this paper by the Trust on the cemetery’s history.
The Trust will propose to cover the landfill and buried cemetery with an additional 3 to 5 feet of sand at a cost of about $1,000,000. The landfill waste materials contain pesticides, PAHs, and metals such as lead, cadmium and zinc.
For a national park the more appropriate remedy is to remove the waste material as has been done at many other Presidio sites. The cost will be more expensive, about $5,000,000, but the solution will be permanent and we will not burden future generations with contamination in the park.
At Landfill 10, the site will remain a parking lot for the Public Health Service Hospital. The slope of the landfill to the west will be exposed waste material and will be covered only with vegetation. While the contaminant levels appear to be low in the landfill material, there is a chance that contamination will be exposed when the slope is cut back for seismic stability purposes.
A public comment period is scheduled to begin on November 17 and run through December 22, 2008. I recommend that interested members of the public request the decision documents from the Presidio Trust when they are released on November 17. If you need additional time to review the materials request a time extension from the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Presidio Trust. According to a Presidio electronic newsletter article released on Tuesday November 4, 2008:
- The documents will be available in the Presidio Trust Library, 34 Graham Street.
- They will also be available on the website.
- Send written comments to: Bob Boggs, DTSC, 700 Heinz Avenue, Suite 200, Berkeley, CA 94710-2721 (email: rboggs@dtsc.ca.gov);
- OR Eileen Fanelli, Presidio Trust, P.O. Box 29052, 34 Graham Street, San Francisco, CA 94129.
- A public meeting on Draft Remedial Action Plan will be held on Tuesday, December 9, (meeting moved up, due to conflict with Main Post meeting on December 9th) Tuesday, December 2nd, 6 pm, Presidio Officers’ Club, 50 Moraga Avenue. If you have questions, call (415) 561-5418.
More on the subject of Landfills 8 and 10 in the coming days.
–Doug Kern
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