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U.S. EPA, state approve cleanup plan at McClellan Air Force Base Superfund Site

Release Date: 07/20/2009
Contact Information: Wendy Chavez, 415/947-4248, chavez.wendy@epa.gov

* * News Brief * * *
Private company to accelerate cleanup, redevelop area to active use

(San Francisco, Calif -- 07/20/2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California recently approved and signed a cleanup plan for a 62-acre portion of the McClellan Air Force Base Superfund Site in Sacramento, Calif., known as Parcel C-6. The cleanup decision is the first-of-its-kind, where the Department of Defense assigned authority over to the EPA to select a cleanup plan for a Superfund site. A private redevelopment company, McClellan Business Park, LLC, will carry out the cleanup under EPA and state oversight, using Air Force funds. The cleanup plan is based on environmental investigations and comments from agencies, organizations and the public, and identifies actions needed to address risks to human health and the environment. Allowing a private company to conduct the cleanup accelerates the cleanup and redevelopment process so the area can be put back into active use sooner. The cleanup must still meet federal and state requirements.

The cleanup will address contamination mainly through excavating and treating surface and shallow soil contaminated primarily with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which were commonly used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment. Soil suitable for treatment will be processed in a way that captures and destroys contaminants removed from the soil. The former Air Force Base was placed on the EPA’s Superfund list in 1987, and since then the Air Force has conducted investigations and cleanup throughout the base. The property is the first portion of the former McClellan AFB to undergo privatized cleanup. Plans are underway to address the remaining roughly 3,000 acres of the former base through a similar approach.

To read more about McClellan Air Force Base Superfund Site, visit: https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/sfund/mcclellan/