A few members of the public attended a meeting last week to discuss the proposed decontamination of a former skeet shooting range at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.
The meeting was held at the Senior Center adjacent to the Mary Wilson Library at 6 p.m. The meeting was attended by a small number of people.
The site scheduled for decontamination is far from the general public, according to base Public Affairs Officer Gregg Smith.
“Just to confirm, the Skeet Range cleanup site is 3/4 mile from the nearest residences (in Huntington Harbour), and 1.3 miles from the nearest residences in Seal Beach,” Smith wrote in a Friday, Aug. 16 email.
At the meeting, Smith said that the Navy will try to satisfy the concerns of the California Coastal Commission, but the state agency has no authority to stop the project on federal property.
The Navy is considering four alternatives, of which Alternative 4, amphibious excavation is the preferred alternative according to Cheryl Martin of KMEA, the consultant on the decontamination project. That means amphibious excavation equipment would be used to remove soil and sediment in the wetland areas of the base.
According to one of Martin’s presentation slides, wetland areas would be filled an additional 1 foot above the current grade as a “buffer against sea level rise”.
Other alternatives would be to take no action, use standard excavation equipment or cap soil and sediment.
According to Martin, the skeet range was closed in 1990s because of concerns that wildlife could ingest shot and soil containing lead and antimony. There is a small arms range near the former skeet range that has been on inactive status since 2021. “Metal fragments have been found along Case Road indicating a potential ricochet problem,” according to one slide.
The project site includes four types of rare tiger beetles, and such birds as the California least tern and the light-footed Ridgway’s rail.
The goal of the project is to reduce the risk that birds and other animals will ingest soil and sediment containing lead, lead shot, and antimony. Antimony is “a trivalent and pentavalent metalloid element with atomic number 51 that commonly occurs in a brittle, metallic, silvery white crystalline form and that is used especially in alloys, semiconductors, and flame-retardant substances,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Takeaways
“The number one takeaway of the Community/NWS meeting regarding the environmental clean up of the former skeet shooting range, is that the U.S. Navy is following a very extensive protocol,” wrote District One Council Member Joe Kalmick on Aug. 16.
“The entire process of approvals and execution could take several years. Fortunately this is not an active site for the base and there is no public access to the area,” Kalmick wrote.
Nick Massetti, who represents District Two on the Seal Beach Environmental Quality Control Board was concerned about the equipment proposed for the project.
“My concern is that the method selected ‘Amphibious Excavation’ on the face of it seems that contaminants will be redistributed to previously cleaned areas while removing contaminated areas. That would seem to be exasperated or made worse by the fact that the tides come in and out alternately flooding the areas under remediation,” Massetti wrote.
“The example picture shows the equipment sitting in water and pulling soil towards it with a bucket. How is it that the soil in the bucket and soil around where the bucket came from does not contaminate the water surrounding the equipment,” Massetti wrote.
“I can only assume that this is too obvious to not have a solution but it did not seem like the folks presenting had an answer,” Massetti wrote.
“Anyway the chief take away is that some action is planned and will hopefully someday be completed,” Massetti wrote.
The public comment period ends Aug. 31.
Written comments should be mailed to Ms. Kathryn Robinson, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southwest, 750 Pacific Highway, 11th Floor, San Diego, CA 92132.
Email comments may be sent to: navfac_sw_nws_seal_beach_rpm@us.navy.mil.
