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US EPA AWARDS $100,000 GRANT TO THE CITY OF ALAMEDA

Release Date: 8/17/2000
Contact Information: Lisa Fasano, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1587

     Redevelopment Funds Targeted for Potential Marina, Golf Course
     
     SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving a $100,000 grant to the Alameda Reuse and Redevelopment Authority to investigate the potential for turning the former Seaplane Lagoon into a marina and converting a former landfill into a golf course.

     The grant will be used to fund a feasibility study looking at options of dredging the lagoon to accommodate a 900-slip marina. The funding will also be used to explore the potential of capping a landfill on the northwest corner of the station and placing a golf course on it.  Engineers will also explore the possibility of using dredged materials from the lagoon to contour the golf course.

     "This program will provide an opportunity for the city to have greater participation in the base cleanup, helping ensure that this property can be reclaimed as a community asset," said Keith Takata, director of the EPA's Superfund program in San Francisco.  "This innovative project looks at converting an empty lagoon into a thriving marina and transforming old runways to fairways   great ideas.  If carried through properly, this project could serve as a national model for other towns and cities struggling with Superfund sites."

     "We are pleased to be receiving this grant from the EPA which will enable us to continue positive development at Alameda Point," said Alameda Mayor Ralph Appezzato.  "Cleanup of Alameda Point is critical to blending the former Naval Air Station into our city so that this land can continue to be productive."

     The EPA's redevelopment program promotes the return of the country's worst hazardous waste sites to productive use.  Only two grants were given by the EPA in California this year, to the cities of Alameda and Santa Fe Springs.  The EPA also gave a grant to the city of Davis last year.
                               
     The EPA listed the Alameda Naval Air Station as a Superfund site in July 1999.  Soil, groundwater and marine sediment at the site are contaminated with industrial solvents, metals including chromium, copper and lead, petroleum products, PCBs, pesticides, and radium 226.  Final cleanup remedies are expected to be in place by 2005.