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U.S. Navy Pays EPA $40,000 for violating Jackson Park Interagency Cleanup Agreement

Release Date: 12/20/2005
Contact Information: Contact: Harry Craig, EPA Region 10, Portland, OR (503) 326-3689 Dave Croxton, EPA Region 10, Seattle, WA (206) 553-6694

December 20, 2005



The U.S. Navy has agreed to pay a $40,000 penalty to resolve a Notice of Non-compliance (NON) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The NON stems from the Navy’s failure to submit an investigation workplan for cleanup at the Jackson Park Housing Complex near Bremerton, Washington.

The area in question involves Operable Unit 3T (OU3T) of the site, which contains abandoned military ordnance from the former Naval Ammunition Depot Puget Sound that operated there for more than 50 years, spanning World Wars I and II. Following WWII, the area was partly converted to residential housing and renamed the Jackson Park Housing Complex.

The work plan, once approved, will require the Navy to investigate the nature and extent of discarded military munitions currently abandoned within the residential housing and other areas of the site, posing potential explosives safety hazards or other risks to human health and the environment.

The Jackson Park Housing Complex/Naval Hospital Bremerton was listed on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1994.

EPA Region 10 has long enjoyed a productive working relationship with the Navy, addressing several contaminated naval facilities in the region. However, at sites like Jackson Park, cleanups involving military munitions have proven to be more difficult and complex.

"Resolving this dispute puts us ‘back on the road’ at Jackson Park,” said David Croxton, EPA's Site Cleanup Unit Manager, "I’m hopeful that we can rely on our past record of working collaboratively with the Navy to satisfy our mutual interest in protecting human health and the environment."

The work plan was due to EPA by July 27, 2005. On October 27, 2005, the Navy submitted to EPA a request for extension of the schedule for the submittal of the Work Plan. The new due date for the Navy's submittal of the draft final Phase II RI Work Plan for OU-3T-JPHC is January 27, 2006.

National Superfund Site (epa.gov/superfund/index.htm)

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