This website provides background information on the Department of the Navy’s (Navy) Environmental Restoration Program (ERP) sites at Naval Radio Transmitter Facility (NRTF) Dixon, Dixon, California. The overarching goal of the Navy’s ERP is to protect human health and the environment from past hazardous waste practices and releases at Navy Installation Restoration Program (IRP) sites and Munition Response Program (MRP). The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest in San Diego, California manages the Navy’s ERP at NRTF Dixon. The Navy’s ERP has identified five IRP sites. One remains active in the IRP and four are closed. One MRP site is open under the ERP at NRTF Dixon.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund, was established in 1980 to provide a mechanism for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous waste and prevent contamination of future sites by assigning liability to responsible parties. The NRTF Dixon IRP sites identified for the Navy’s ERP have been or are currently being addressed under CERCLA.
The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) amended the CERCLA legislation in 1986. Among other changes, SARA established the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP), which is managed by the Office of the Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense, Installations and Environment. The DERP cleans up hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, and military munitions remaining from past activities at military installations and formerly used defense sites.
The Navy is the current landowner of NRTF Dixon and the lead federal agency working with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in accordance with the CERCLA process to collect and evaluate environmental data addressing issues related to past releases at each IRP site and the MRP site. The Department of Toxic Substances Control acts as the lead regulatory agency, and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board is the support agency for The Navy’s IRP at NRTF Dixon.
Naval Radio Transmitter Facility Dixon History
NRTF Dixon, is a United States Pacific Fleet transmitter facility in Solano County, California. The facility encompasses 1,280 acres of land and includes a transmitter building and antennas, a housing area, agricultural areas, and a designated natural resource management area. Approximately 62 acres at NRTF Dixon consist of open space, roadways, drainage canals, and a small reservoir. The Navy has designated the reservoir near the northwest corner of the facility as a wetland area and has reserved approximately 158 acres of the facility as a designated wildlife refuge area.
The Navy bought the property that would become NRTF Dixon in 1941 for use as a radio transmitting station. Construction began in 1946, and NRTF Dixon was established in 1947 as a fleet communications facility for Naval Communications Station, Stockton. NRTF Dixon provided services and equipment to regional commands including Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Naval Air Station Alameda, and Patrol Wings United States Pacific Fleet.
From 1963 to 1966, NRTF Dixon was expanded to add more antennas, transmission lines, transmitters, and electronic equipment. Navy personnel operated the installation until 1979 when it was converted to a contractor-operated facility. It continues to be a Navy-owned, contractor-operated facility.
Environmental Restoration Program Background
The purpose of the Navy’s IRP is to reduce the risk to human health and the environment from environmental problems by moving IRP sites through the CERCLA process, from identification and investigation to cleanup and closure.
The Navy instituted the IRP at NRTF Dixon to meet the requirements of CERCLA. The facility has five IR Sites with a total of 15 groundwater monitoring wells. Investigations at IRP Sites 1, 2, and 3 were initiated in 1987. These three original sites are identified as IRP Site 1, the Waste Blowdown Area; IRP Site 2, Landfill Area A; and IRP Site 3, Landfill Area B. IRP Site 4, the Automobile Landfill, was identified in 1989 during a geophysical survey conducted to locate potential buried drums of pesticides. IRP Site 5 is the basewide investigation in shallow groundwater beneath NRTF Dixon. It includes the groundwater beneath IRP Sites 1, 2, 3, and 4.
IRP Sites 1, 2, 4, and 5 were found to pose little to no risk to human health or the environment and were closed with no further action required. IR Site 3 is active and in the process of gaining regulatory approval for site closure.
The Navy is preparing a final action memorandum for MRP Site UXO1, a former firing range limited to recreational use, for regulatory agency review, as well as planning documents for the proposed excavation and offsite disposal of lead contaminated soil.
CLICK HERE for information on the Navy’s ERP.