Excerpt:

When the federal government shut Naval Air Station Alameda's doors, in 1997, the prevailing wisdom was that cleanup of the toxics the Navy left behind would be complete in a few years, for less than $100 million. Eighteen years and more than a half billion dollars later, the cleanup team working to clear and contain contamination at the federal Superfund site ranging from solvents to fuel, metals and radioactive paint is still on the job - with at least another half dozen years to go before they're done.

The Navy turned over nearly 1,400 acres of land and water at the Point to the city in 2013 and another 624 acres to the Department of Veterans Affairs this past summer. The handover of hundreds of acres of additional land is expected to take place over the next five to seven years as cleanup and containment efforts are completed. But those deadlines have been pushed out before, and could be again if new contaminants are discovered during the cleanup process.