The Sacramento Army Depot, another Superfund site on the latest closure list, isn't nearly as bad as Jefferson, but putting the land back to use is going to be tough because of trichloroethylene and heavy metals in the water supply.
"Because of the contamination it's never going to be used for housing. It may be a blank spot in the economy for years to come," said Michael Picker, West Coast director for the National Toxics Campaign Fund.
"You can't build a modern functional city around this gory mess. You can't just leave it there," Picker said. "The military is leaving these blighted toxic ghettos behind them. I think there's a little more required."
Here are the bases proposed for closure that are Superfund National Priority sites, and the contaminants identified in the Defense Environmental Restoration Program's 1991 annual report:
* Castle Air Force Base, Merced, Calif.--spent solvents, fuels, waste oils, pesticides, cyanide, cadmium.
* Davisville Construction Battalion Center, North Kingston, R.I.--PCBs, volatile organic compounds, oily lubricants, pesticides, lead.
* Ft. Devens, Middlesex County, Mass.--volatile organic compounds, petroleum products, PCBs, pesticides, herbicides.
* Ft. Dix, Pemberton Township, N. J.--volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, lubricants, solvents, photographic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, medical wastes.
* Ft. Ord, Marina, Calif.--metals and volatile organic compounds.
* Hunters Point Annex, San Francisco--paints, solvents, fuels, acids, heavy metals, PCBs, asbestos, phenols, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds.
* Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine--waste oils, fuels, solvents, PCBs, pesticides, heavy metals.
* Moffett Naval Air Station, Sunnyvale, Calif.--metal-plating wastes, PCBs, waste oil and fuels, painting residues, organic solvents, caustics, coolants, pesticides, asbestos, Freon, dyes.
* Sacramento Army Depot, Sacramento--oil and grease, solvents, metal-plating wastes, waste waters containing caustics, cyanide, heavy metals.
* Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island, Wash.--volatile organic compounds, oily lubricants.
* Williams Air Force Base, Chandler, Ariz.--waste solvents, fuels and lubricants, heavy metals.
