Hamilton site suspected of
damaging waterway

By Con Garretson

===============
Elena Belsky, a Marin investigator
with San Francisco BayKeeper,
suspects the problems at Pacheco
Pond and the unidentified landfill at
Hamilton Field are linked because of
groundwater migration patterns in the
area.
Photo: Frankie Frost
===============

An apparently unidentified landfill at
Hamilton Field, suspected to contain
a wide array of toxic chemicals and
other hazardous materials, may be
the cause of environmental problems
at a nearby pond that leads into San
Pablo Bay, according to a former
military sites inspector.
Bel Marin Keys resident Robert Foley
spells out what he observed at the
former Novato military base more
than a decade ago in a letter he sent
to military and regulatory officials last
Friday, a copy of which he provided
to the Independent Journal.
Foley, who served 20 years in the
Army, said the improper storage of chemicals and other materials at
Hamilton, as well as their subsequent disposal near a known military landfill
of current environmental concern, were documented in a report he filed as an
Army civilian inspector 13 years ago.
Attempts by Foley and others to retrieve that document from military sources
have so far been unsuccessful, but among the dumped items, according to
Foley, were:
* Hundreds of gallons of lead-based paints, strippers, thinners, degreasers
and cleaning solvents.
* Some decontamination chemicals used for warfare purposes, including
highly-concentrated industrial bleach.
* Radiological survey instrumentation.
* Outdated medical supplies and radioactive hospital materials.
"We're dealing with a complete unknown," said Sue Lattanzio, a chemist and


founding member of Friends of Novato Creek. "This could be only the tip of
the iceberg. Who knows what has been happening out there for years at
Hamilton and in the pond?
"We've got the methane and the MTBE and other stuff we know about. It
could have all combined into one big toxic soup."
In his letter, Foley wrote: "Many of these supply stocks contained chemicals
that were incompatible with each other and could under certain conditions
produce violent isothermic (explosive) reactions without an additional
catalyst."
Several military and regulatory officials discussed the matter with Foley
during a special Jan. 16 meeting at Hamilton called on the issue. No
clean-up work or testing has been done since, he said.
Foley said he has become frustrated by the lack of results after going
through official channels and wanted to publicize his suspicions in hopes of
affecting some change.
"I want some action taken," said Foley, a member of the Bel Marin Keys
Homeowners Association. "I think the Army has an obligation to do
something.
"I'll tell you, I'm not a member of the Audubon club but I do care about the
future of my children, my grandchildren and the water out here. I don't think
(the Army) did all they could do to clean-up Hamilton. I think they were just in
a hurry to get the hell out of town."
Concerns have been raised at Hamilton in recent months after revelations
that methane has crept underground from Landfill 26 to underneath adjacent
property pegged for residential development. The 15-acre military dump,
which was not officially used past 1974 and was capped in 1995, also
contains known and suspected carcinogens.
Additionally, a former Navy gas station nearby is leaking the fuel additive
methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which has been found in Pacheco Creek.
That waterway passes by Landfill 26 and into the Pacheco Pond Wildlife
Area, which environmental monitors say has intermittently seen fish kills,
strong chemical odors and a white plume in recent months. Some Marin
County Sheriff's divers became ill after going into the pond last November.
The suspected landfill is about 100 yards northeast of Landfill 26 near former
military runways. The land is planned to be restored to tidal marshlands as
habitat for fish, waterfowl and other wildlife as part of the largest wetland
restoration project on the West Coast.
To date, analyzed water samples from Pacheco Pond have been
inconclusive, but Foley and other environmental monitors have called for
more frequent and thorough testing. The Marin County Flood Control District,
which has oversight on the pond, plans to test the pond sediment this
summer, according to Liz Lewis, a biologist with that agency.
"When they started having problems out at Pacheco Pond, people were
looking at the methane," Foley said. "I thought that may be part of the
problem but it's probably not the only cause."

Elena Belsky, Marin investigator with San Francisco BayKeeper, an
environmental watchdog group, planned to distribute the letter to officials at a
meeting last night of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB), held at the
Novato Charter School at Hamilton.
The unidentified landfill issue was not expected to come up for discussion
during the meeting because of a busy agenda dealing with other
environmental-related developments at Hamilton. Foley did not attend the
meeting.
RAB member Jim McAlister is a project manager with the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, which is responsible for cleanup activities at military sites. He
said he recalls Foley saying the cited materials were in Landfill 26 during the
January meeting.
When some of the materials were not found in Landfill 26, McAlister said he
set aside further consideration of the matter, particularly after concern grew
about emerging, documented environmental problems at Hamilton. He said
he has not had an opportunity this week to investigate the letter's allegations.
Other RAB members contacted before the meeting said they either could
not, by agency policy, or would not immediately comment on the letter that
some of them had received earlier this week.
Ken Bell and Jim Davies, consultants on Hamilton issues for the city of
Novato, initially speculated that the landfill Foley referred to was a previously
identified and cleaned-up site known as Landfill 23. But after looking at a
map marked by Foley and interpreted by Belsky, they acknowledged it was a
different site.
Belsky, like Foley, suspects that the pond problems and the unidentified
landfill are linked because of groundwater migration patterns in the area.