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LA District hosts public meeting for Point Vicente Interpretive Center FUDS project

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District
Published Oct. 23, 2024
Pictured is a view from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Sept. 10.

Pictured is a view from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Sept. 10.

Patti De La O, program director with contractor BSX, speaks with attendees of a public meeting Sept. 10 at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Patti De La O, program director with contractor BSX, speaks with attendees of a public meeting Sept. 10 at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Daniel Huff, Los Angeles District Formerly Used Defense Sites Program project manager, speaks during the Sept. 10 public meeting at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Daniel Huff, Los Angeles District Formerly Used Defense Sites Program project manager, speaks during the Sept. 10 public meeting at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

The cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the Point Vicente Interpretive Center are pictured Sept. 10 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

The cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the Point Vicente Interpretive Center are pictured Sept. 10 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — The Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes opened its doors for a public meeting Sept. 10 to help determine the way forward on the soil contamination Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, project.

The center serves as a natural history mu­seum that sits atop a 26-acre parcel of land that previously served as an Army small-arms range from the 1940s through 1974. Along with the museum structures, the property now includes associated infrastructure, trails, park­ing areas utilities and park land along Rancho Palos Verdes’ ocean-view cliffs.

Although the center first opened in 1984, it was during excavation for a facility expansion in 1999 that officials discovered lead-contam­inated soil from the former Army small-arms range, at which time the center was closed to allow for investigation and cleanup.

As the Department of Defense executive agent for FUDS projects, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managed the removal of soils containing lead at concentrations above 250 mg/kg, which was the cleanup standard at the time it was completed in 2002. Follow­ing the removal action, the facility expansion resumed, after which the Point Vicente Inter­pretive Center completely reopened in 2006.

USACE uses a risk-management approach to the remediation process, which it conducts in accordance with the Comprehensive Envi­ronmental Response, Compensation and Lia­bility Act, or CERCLA. As part of this process, USACE completed a Remedial Investigation in 2024 to characterize site conditions, determine the current nature and extent of contamination and perform human health and ecological risk assessments based on current and reasonably anticipated land use.

“The risk assessment evaluates exposure scenarios and factors such as the current lead concentrations in the soil, as well as current and anticipated land-use to determine the type of receptors that will be present at the site,” said Daniel Huff, environmental specialist and project manager with the LA District’s FUDS Program.

“There is a land use covenant, or LUC, in place that was established in 2006 between the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the City of Rancho Palos Verdes,” Huff added. “The LUC restricts the use of the site as a recreational facility and restricts intru­sive activities that might expose soils contain­ing low levels of residual lead. Although not part of the risk assessment calculations, the re­strictions included in the LUC support a higher level of certainty that the public and workers at the site will not be exposed to soils containing low levels of residual lead.

“Under the CERCLA process,” Huff con­tinued, “based on the findings of the Reme­dial Investigation, we would develop a Feasi­bility Study to evaluate alternative remedies if an unacceptable risk was identified. In the case of the Point Vicente Soil Contamination project, the Remedial Investigation deter­mined there was no unacceptable risk to hu­man or ecological receptors from exposure to lead at this site under current and reason­ably anticipated land use. Because there is no unacceptable risk, there is no remedy to evaluate, and we moved directly to the pro­posed plan.”

Based on these findings, the proposed plan proposes “No Further Action.”

“In other words,” Huff said, “there’s no un­acceptable risk, so there’s no remedy or further cleanup required.”

The Sept. 10 public meeting, one of later stages in the CERCLA process, is where the LA District presented the proposed plan and invited public input before USACE makes its final decision.

Huff said even though USACE works for years with partners and contractors to help make its decision, public input is always a vital part of the equation.

“When I hear a concern expressed by a mem­ber of the public, I can put myself in their shoes and can say, ‘Well, I might be concerned about that too,”’ Huff said. “It could be that I just need to explain something differently or maybe they’re looking at something in a different way that we hadn’t thought of — which could be a valid consideration that we need to take into ac­count when we make the decision about this.”