December 5, 1995
From: City of Berkeley
Regarding aeration of polluted soils.
Dear Mr. Wood:
This is in response to your letter regarding aeration of polluted soils. On site aeration of contaminated soils is an issue that both the Toxics Management Division (TMD) and the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC) have addressed in the past two years. The City removes 50 underground storage tanks in an average year. Most of these tanks show some measure of pollution during excavation but very few of the underground storage tank (UST) removals result in complaints from neighbors. The reason is that the TMD and the consultant usually agree upon an acceptable procedure in advance. The TMD has made aeration a costly remediation procedure by requiring all aeration requests to be accompanied by a limited health risk assessment and an air monitoring program at the site for the duration of a prolonged aeration process.
In a recent and fairly rare case of aeration in Berkeley, the consultant, property owner and State agencies allowed aeration to be used as a cost effective remediation method. Aeration is an accepted remediation method in other Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The aeration operations resulted in the expected nuisance complaints from the community and the TMD intervened with the State agencies to reverse this policy and remove the remainder of the contamination for off-site remediation.
The CEAC supported staff position on restricting aeration of polluted soils and passed a recommendation to the City Council to further restrict this activity. Since that time, Council delayed the CEAC recommendation and recommended that a workshop be presented to them on this subject.
On November 21, 1995, a workshop was presented to the City Council. There was also a short video ("On Berkeley Soil") presentation from the public on the problems of aeration and ground water quality. A discussion followed the presentation and Council approved the CEAC item for limiting aeration of contaminated soils and added a request to staff and the CEAC to determine risk communication procedures, accelerated contaminated stockpile removal, and added inspection of high hazard stockpiles.
With respect to the clean up levels, staff is to prepare a communication to Council explaining what a containment zone is and what Emeryville is doing in their recent "brownfields" application. The City Attorney is to look into the potential action the City of Berkeley can take if we are impacted by Emeryville's action. Additional language is to be added to the communication to the State and Regional water boards reflecting a stronger role for the impacted community on advisory bodies which may impact decision making.
GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION/WATER POLICIES
December 22, 1995
From City of Berkeley
Dear Mr. Wood:
On November 21, 1995, you participated in a City Council workshop which also included representatives from the Toxics Management Division (TMD), the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB), the Bay Area Management District, and the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC). At the meeting, you raised issues around requiring Environmental Impact Report and/or suing or formally discussing with the City of Emeryville their recent adoption of the "containment zone" concept for their City.
1. The issue of California "containment zones" or the U.S. "brown fields" with regard to clean up standards of contaminated sites is an issue that is currently being reviewed by various agencies, including the TMD - who implement the Basin Plan withing the City, the City Attorney's office in terms of how such a policy may impact the City, the CEAC and others. Staff is instructed by Council to respond on clarification of these policy issues by late February 1996.
2. It is our understanding that the State is reviewing a draft proposal for modifying clean up standards under the title of "containment zone" policy. When adopted, the TMD will implement this standard within the City of Berkeley. Until that time, the TMD is authorized by the RWQCB to implement the clean up of contaminated sites to standards set out in the Basin Plan guidelines as well as taking into consideration the policies on "containment zones" that the RWQCB has implemented locally.
