JAG Promotions Racing Vacation Guide Presents: Closed Military Facilities

FORT ORD

Guests of Boise Cascade Office Product's Racing event may be asking themselves, "Just how close to Unexploded Ordnance were we?"

Location:

 

Former Fort Ord is near Monterey Bay in Monterey County, California, approximately 80 miles south of San Francisco. The base consists of about 29,440 acres near the the cities Seaside, Sand City, Monterey, Del Rey Oaks, and Marina. Laguna Seca Recreation Area and Toro Regional Park border Fort Ord to the south and southeast, respectively. Land use east of Fort Ord is primarily agricultural.

History

Beginning with its founding in 1917, Fort Ord served primarily as a training and staging facility for infantry troops. From 1947 to 1975, Fort Ord was a basic training center. After 1975, the 7th Infantry Division (Light) occupied Fort Ord. Light infantry troops operate without heavy tanks, armor, or artillery. Fort Ord was selected in 1991 for decommissioning, but troop reassignment was not completed until 1994 when the post formally closed. Although Army personnel still operate parts of the base, no active Army division is stationed at Fort Ord.

In 1917, the US Army bought the present day East Garrison and nearby lands on the east side of Fort Ord to use as a maneuver and training ground for field artillery and cavalry troops stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. Before the Army's use of the property, the area was agricultural, as is much of the surrounding land today. No permanent improvements were made until the late 1930s, when administrative buildings, barracks, mess halls, tent pads, and a sewage treatment plant were constructed.

In 1938, additional agricultural property was purchased for the development of the Main Garrison. At the same time, the beachfront property was donated to the Army. The Main Garrison was constructed between 1940 and the 1960s, starting in the northwest corner of the base and expanding southward and eastward. During the 1940s and 1950s, a small airfield within the Main Garrison was present in what is now the South Parade Ground. In the early 1960s, Fritzsche Army Airfield (FAAF) was completed. The Main Garrison airfield was then decommissioned and its facilities were redeveloped as motor pools and other facilities.

Over its history, the post was home to a succession of infantry divisions and served as a center for basic and advanced training. In 1975, the post became the home to the 7th Infantry Division, which conducted training exercises on the installation. Fort Ord was selected for closure in 1991 and placed on the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list. The 7th Infantry Division (light) was inactivated in September 1993 and the soldiers were reassigned elsewhere. The post officially closed on September 30, 1994.

Many areas of the base had been used for ordnance training.

The Department of Defense Ammunition and Explosive Safety Standard (DoD 6055.9 - Standard) states that real property that is known to be contaminated with ammunition, explosives or chemical agents must be decontaminated with the most appropriate technology to assure the protection of the public consistent with the proposed end use of the property.

In 1993 an archival investigation was conducted to locate areas where ordnance may have been used. Additional archive searches, follow-on interviews and visual inspections conducted since 1993 indicate that approximately 12,000 acres are known or suspected to contain ordnance and explosives (OE). Twenty-nine OE sites are identified in the Phase 1 Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA). The Phase 2 EE/CA established a process to evaluate the remaining sites. The areas range in size from less than one acre to more than 1,000 acres, although most of the areas are less than 200 acres. To date approximately 3,000 acres have been investigated and/or received removal actions designed to minimize the explosive safety risk to the public. The removal process used at Fort Ord is documented in the EE/CAs which were prepared in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). These documents received thorough regulatory and public review.

A Multi-Range Area (MRA) is located in the south-central portion of Fort Ord. Lands within the boundaries of the MRA are expected to have the highest density of ordnance and explosives (OE), with specific target areas having the highest densities. Types of OE found at Fort Ord include artillery projectiles, rockets, hand grenades, land mines, pyrotechnics, bombs, demolition materials and other items. Known OE sites are posted with warning signs and are off-limits to unauthorized people.

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) can be very unstable and may be a serious safety hazard. DANGER and NO TRESPASSING signs are posted around areas where UXO may be present. The most dangerous areas are fenced and signs are posted. Please DO NOT ENTER these areas for your safety. If you find any object that could be UXO, DON'T TOUCH IT.

Obey all DANGER signs and barricades. Explosives Areas are Dangerous!

Areas of Contamination

Fort Ord was identified by the U.S. Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) as a federal Superfund site on the basis of groundwater contamination discovered on the base in 1990.

Several areas of contamination exist on site. The facility contained leaking petroleum underground storage tanks, containers of waste oil and various automotive chemicals, chemical storage areas, oil-waste separators, target ranges, and landfills. One on-site area is a 150-acre landfill that was primarily used to dispose of residential waste, as well as small amounts of commercial waste generated by the base. Other areas include a former fire drill area, motor pool maintenance areas, small dump sites, and small arms target ranges. An 8,000-acre firing range, and other limited areas on-site, pose threats from unexploded ordnance. Approximately 40,000 people obtain drinking water from wells located within 3 miles of the site. The Salinas River alluvial basin, El Toro Creek, and Monterey Bay border the site.

Threats and Contaminants

On-site groundwater is contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Contaminants have been detected in groundwater samples collected from Fort Ord. On-site soils in several vehicle maintenance and motor pool areas, and minor dump sites, have been contaminated with chemicals that spilled onto the ground. In addition, soils at the beach target ranges are contaminated with lead. Coming into direct contact with contaminated soils may pose a potential health threat to on-site workers, as well as employees of the Fort Ord Army base. Unexploded ordnance on an 8,000-acre firing range and limited on-site areas may also pose health threats.

Climate

The area's climate is characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. The Pacific Ocean is the principal influence on the climate at Fort Ord, causing fog and onshore winds that moderate temperature extremes. Daily ambient air temperatures typically range from 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but temperatures in the low 100s have occurred. Fog is common in the morning throughout the year. Winds are generally from the west.

The average annual rainfall of 14 inches occurs almost entirely between November and April. Because the predominant soil is permeable sand, runoff is limited and streamflow only occurs intermittently and within the very steep canyons in the eastern portion of Fort Ord.

Ecological Setting

Fort Ord is located on California's central coast, a biologically diverse and unique region. The range and combination of climactic, topographic, and soil conditions at Fort Ord support many biological communities. The 11 plant communities identified at the Fort Ord sites include coast live oak woodland, central maritime chaparral, central coastal scrub, vegetatively stabilized dune, northern foredune grassland, landscaped, valley needlegrass grassland, seasonally wet grassland, vernal pool, upland ruderal, and wet ruderal. Central maritime chaparral is the most extensive natural community at Fort Ord, occupying approximately 12,500 acres in the south-central portion of the base. Oak woodlands are widespread at Fort Ord and occupy the next largest area, about 5,000 acres. Grasslands, primarily in the southeastern and northern portions of the base, occupy approximately 4,500 acres. The other five community types generally occupy less than 500 acres each. The remaining approximately 4,000 acres of the base are considered to be fully developed and do not support ecological communities. Special-status biological resources are those resources, including plant and wildlife taxa and native biological communities, that receive various levels of protection under local, state, or federal laws, regulations, or policies. Of the 11 plant communities identified at Fort Ord, two are considered rare or declining and of highest inventory priority by the California Department of Fish and Game central maritime chaparral and valley needlegrass grassland. Special status taxa that occur or potentially occur in the plant communities at Fort Ord were identified for each site, include 22 vascular plants, 1 invertebrate, 4 reptiles, 1 amphibian, 9 birds, and 2 mammals.

Topography and Surface Waters

Elevations at Fort Ord range from approximately 900 feet above mean sea level (MSL) near Impossible Ridge, on the east side of the base, to sea level at the beach. The predominant topography of the area reflects a morphology typical of the dune sand deposits that underlie the western and northern portions of the base. In these areas, the ground surface slopes gently west and northwest, draining toward Monterey Bay. Runoff is minimal due to the high rate of surface water infiltration into the permeable dune sand; consequently, well-developed natural drainage is absent throughout much of this area. Closed drainage depressions typical of dune topography are common. The topography in the southeastern third of the base is notably different from the rest of the base. This area has relatively well-defined, eastward-flowing drainage channels within narrow, moderately to steeply sloping canyons. Runoff is into the Salinas Valley.

Geology

Fort Ord is within the Coast Ranges Geomorphic Province. The region consists of northwest-trending mountain ranges, broad basins, and elongated valleys generally paralleling the major geologic structures. In the Coast Ranges, older, consolidated rocks are characteristically exposed in the mountains but are buried beneath younger, unconsolidated alluvial fan and fluvial sediments in the valleys and lowlands. In the coastal lowlands, these younger sediments commonly interfinger with marine deposits.

Fort Ord is at the transition between the mountains of the Santa Lucia Range and the Sierra de la Salinas to the south and southeast, respectively, and the lowlands of the Salinas River Valley to the north. The geology of Fort Ord generally reflects this transitional condition; older, consolidated rock is exposed at the ground surface near the southern base boundary and becomes buried under a northward-thickening sequence of poorly consolidated deposits to the north. Fort Ord and the adjacent areas are underlain, from depth to ground surface, by one or more of the following older, consolidated units: · Mesozoic granite and metamorphic rocks · Miocene marine sedimentary rocks of the Monterey Formation · Upper Miocene to lower Pliocene marine sandstone of the Santa Margarita Formation (and possibly the Pancho Rico and/or Purisima Formations). Locally, these units are overlain and obscured by geologically younger sediments, including:

o Plio-Pleistocene alluvial fan, lake, and fluvial deposits of the Paso Robles Formation

o Pleistocene eolian and fluvial sands of the Aromas Sand

o Pleistocene to Holocene valley fill deposits consisting of poorly consolidated gravel, sand, silt, and clay Pleistocene and Holocene dune sands Recent beach sand Recent alluvium

Hydrogeology

Recent studies of Fort Ord hydrogeology concluded that the base straddles two distinct groundwater basins, the Salinas and Seaside basins. Fort Ord includes the southwestern edge of the Salinas basin and the eastern portion of the smaller Seaside basin. The Salinas basin underlies the northern and southeastern portions of the base, and the Seaside basin underlies the southern and southwestern areas.

The Salinas groundwater basin is relatively large and extends well beyond the boundaries of Fort Ord. At Fort Ord, the Salinas basin is composed of relatively flat-lying to gently dipping poorly consolidated sediments. Although relatively simple structurally, the sediments are stratigraphically complex, reflecting a variety of depositional environments. Aquifers within the Salinas basin at Fort Ord, from top to bottom, include the unconfined A-aquifer, the confined Upper 180-foot aquifer, the confined and unconfined Lower 180-foot aquifer, and the confined 400-foot and 900-foot aquifers. These aquifer names reflect local historical water levels and are not directly correlated to present water levels at Fort Ord.

Groundwater extraction by the city of Marina, by Fort Ord, and by irrigation wells in the Salinas Valley have historically induced seawater intrusion into the Lower 180-foot and the 400-foot aquifers. Seawater intrusion continues to affect these aquifers. Intrusion into the Upper 180-foot aquifer appears to be limited to the vicinity of the beach at Fort Ord. The extraction, by the City of Marina, of drinking water from the lower 180 and 400 foot aquifers has been terminated. Drinking water for the Marina area is now extracted from the 900 ft. and 1,500 ft. aquifers.

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