EPA seeks public input on partial removal of Fort Ord from Superfund list.

The cleanup effort at Fort Ord could hit a historic milestone next month as the Environmental Protection Agency seeks to partially remove the former U.S. Army base from the national Superfund list of contaminated sites. 

The EPA announced the plan in the Federal Registrar on Nov. 20 opening up a 30-day period to collect feedback from members of the public. Fort Ord and three other Superfund sites are lumped together in the same notice. 

The action would declare the cleanup of military munitions and soil pollution on 11,934 acres of the 27,827 Fort Ord site, or about 43-percent complete. The Army will continue to work on the groundwater and soil gas contamination in that area. The other 15,893 acres of Fort Ord will remain on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List. (See a map of these areas above.)

“This is a major milestone in the CERCLA process for any site, but for such a large and complex site, it is a huge accomplishment," the Army said in a statement, referring to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which governs the Superfund program. 

Members of the public who wish to weigh in have until Dec. 21 to do so. There are two ways to submit comments: 1. Through the federal government’s online portal, found here. 2. By emailing the EPA representative Maeve Clancy at clancy.maeve@epa.gov. 

The EPA will respond to the comments and announce its decision on the delisting in a future notice in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen in May 2021. 

Established in 1917, Fort Ord served as a training base and artillery target range for the Army. In 1991, the federal government decided to close Fort Ord as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process. A year earlier, the EPA placed the base on its Superfund list because “the site contained leaking petroleum underground storage tanks, a 150-acre landfill used to dispose of residential waste and small amounts of commercial waste generated by the base, a former fire drill area, motor pool maintenance areas, small dumpsites, small arms target ranges, an 8,000-acre firing range and other limited areas that pose threats from unexploded ordnance.”