Excerpt:

Cleanup of contaminated groundwater between Alameda Point’s Seaplane Lagoon and Main Street is about to begin. The Navy will present its plan for doing so at this evening’s Restoration Advisory Board meeting. The meeting will convene at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall West, 950 West Mall Square.

At this meeting, the Navy will also review the longterm and costly maintenance plan for the soil cover over the underground dump at the northwestern tip of Alameda Point: an area to become city property and eventually part of a regional park.

The lagoon cleanup area is directly south of the Site A residential and commercial parcel slated for groundbreaking later this year. It is one of the most difficult environmental cleanup areas to remedy at Alameda Point. This is why it has taken 20 years to decide what plan to implement.

A cleaning solvent used in the Navy’s industrial repair and refurbishing operations in this area leaked into the ground to depths of 70 feet and spread around nearly 19 acres. Prompt cleanup has been hampered by a maze of utility lines that preclude effective use of faster remedies such as heat-induced vapor extraction and injecting special chemicals to neutralize the toxic solvent.