Source: http://www.marinij.com, August 15, 2015
By: Stephanie Weldy
Residents long concerned about chemicals from a former dry-cleaning business at Marinwood Plaza are pushing for immediate cleanup of the area.
As studies continue on the spread and severity of the toxin PCE, or tetrachloroethene, and other related compounds associated with the dry cleaning solvent, residents say they are growing impatient with the lack of action. Contaminants were first reported in the area in 2008 and soil testing recently revealed chemicals have migrated under the freeway to Silveira Ranch.
Residents with the Save Marinwood Now oversight committee are circulating a petition demanding immediate cleanup of the “toxic hotspot” inside the cleaners, and for further testing in neighboring residential areas such as Casa Marinwood.
On Wednesday, four committee members went to Oakland to voice their concerns to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
“They need to start doing a (remedial) injection now,” said Bill McNicholas, who spoke at the session. “The way I look at it, it’s like an oil spill, do you take corrective action or find out what caused it and where it’s going? That’s how I look at it. They need to get action going now to stop the spread.”
State water officials last year ordered Marinwood Plaza LLC, property owners of the plaza where the dry cleaner operated, to submit a cleanup action plan by Jan. 16, 2016.
Stephen Hill, toxics cleanup division chief at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, said once the plan is submitted, depending on the course of action proposed, work should follow within a few months.
“We expect to get the cleanup plan in early January, and if approvable, we’ll require them to put it in place and then we’ll go to implementation,” Hill said.
Representatives of the property owners have said they’d like to push the time frame back, as they’re certain the action plan will require excavation of land, which they’d like to do as they redevelop the site. A controversial 82-unit affordable housing complex had been proposed at the 5-acre site by Bridge Housing, but in April, the developer was dropped by property owners as a potential buyer.
There are numerous buyers interested in redeveloping the land, but as of now, no formal application has been submitted to the county, Supervisor Damon Connolly said Friday.
“We’ve been in touch with the owner, I know they’re interested in getting the project done,” Connolly said. “They hired a broker who is taking the site out to market to gauge level of interest. In my view, the toxic issue is a key component of ultimately paving the way to bring a successful project.”
The current schedule proposed is troublesome, some Marinwood residents said. And to base cleanup on redevelopment is unacceptable, they added.
The PCE plume that has extended under the freeway and into nearby Silveira Ranch’s ground water shows traces are not present at toxic levels, the water board’s Hill said. Out of caution, state water officials are issuing wellhead treatments to be installed, so water is treated before use by the dairy ranch’s livestock and people, he said.
Renee Silveira, daughter of Silveira Ranch owner Lorraine Silveira, said the treatment system could have been avoided had cleanup taken place years ago. To wait for cleanup to be timed with redevelopment could result in expanded contamination as the plume continues to travel, she said.
“Who knows when that’s going to happen?” she said of redevelopment at the plaza. “I don’t know if that’s what they would submit to the board. Waiting any longer for cleanup of the site is not acceptable.”
Residents’ push to get an expedited cleanup is in part based on the fact that contaminants are spreading throughout the area, they said. McNicholas is concerned the spread could flow from well water into Miller Creek and eventually make its way into the bay.
A handful of residents at the neighboring Casa Marinwood community have recently been diagnosed with cancer and residents are curious if the contamination is in anyway responsible, McNicholas said.
“People there are concerned it might be caused by contamination,” he said. “But we have no proof one way or the other unless they do more testing (to see) if it’s even in that area. They’ve done no testing in that area, at least on the streets. We’re pushing them to test.”
Hill said he understands residents’ concerns, but state water officials don’t expect contaminants, in the form of soil gas, compared with the groundwater contamination that has spanned out to the Silveira Ranch, to migrate more than 100 feet from the original source. Casa Marinwood is over 250 feet away from the source, he said.
On why the cleanup schedule is unlikely to be moved up, Hill said interim actions already in place have proven effective. Actions have included removal of soil from underneath the former dry cleaner and injection of oxidizers, that break down the contaminants, at a second source at the edge of the Marinwood Plaza property. All test results are showing below regulatory levels and there is no indication that soil vapor has reached Casa Marinwood residents, Hill said.
“We can’t just require people to go out and clean,” he said. “We want to see the (cleanup) proposal and see what the community thinks of the proposal. We have that luxury because there’s not current (hazardous) impact.