The current Installation Restoration Program (IRP) site at former Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center (NMCRC) Los Angeles is managed under the Department of the Navy’s (Navy) Environmental Restoration Program (ERP). 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 ERP sites. The interactive map below shows the site being addressed under the Navy’s ERP. The ERP at former NMCRC Los Angeles, is managed by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest (NAVFAC SW) in San Diego, California.
The Navy’s ERP has identified one IRP site at NMCRC Los Angeles. The site is a former service station and drum storage area. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board closed the case in 2017. The closure was conditional, calling for remedy performance reviews every five years.
The Navy, along with NAVFAC SW, and local and state regulators, monitors all UST sites to ensure compliance with regulations and laws, and to address community concerns.
The Department of the Navy transferred ownership of the property to the city of Los Angeles in 2015 with a deed restriction and land use covenant. Land use is restricted to industrial/commercial. The Los Angeles Fire Department currently occupies the site. The Navy retains responsibility for five-year reviews and any Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act actions.
A link to an overview of past and current environmental investigations and cleanup activities completed at each of the ERP sites can be found by clicking the site name on the map.
CLICK HERE for acronym definitions and a glossary of the Navy’s ERP terms.
CLICK HERE for detailed information on the Navy’s ERP.
CLICK HERE for additional site-specific documents for each ERP site in the Navy’s NMCRC Los Angeles Administrative Record.
Installation Restoration Program Sites
IRP Site 01 – Former Service Station and Drum Storage Area
In the early 1990s the Navy was interested in transferring the NMCRC Los Angeles property to the City of Los Angeles. In 1995 an environmental baseline survey was conducted to begin the property transfer process under the Navy’s Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act, which calls for early identification of property suitable for transfer. The survey noted that a service station was demolished in the late 1970s reportedly including the removal of a 1,000-gallon gasoline underground storage tank (UST). The survey also identified a vehicle lube rack and drum storage area and a 2,000-gallon waste-oil UST that had been removed in 1994. The survey report recommended additional environmental investigation. In 1996, a geophysical survey intended to locate the UST or evidence of excavation proved inconclusive, although soil samples detected volatile organic compounds.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control was the lead regulatory agency because IRP Site 1 was considered a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) site. Despite this status, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a closure letter in 1998 for the 1,000-gallon gasoline UST and the 2,000-gallon waste oil UST. In the letter, the Regional Board indicated that closure was conditional based on the assumption that there is no additional contamination identified in the future.
Following the identification of potential environmental concerns in the 1996 environmental baseline survey, and to advance the planned property transfer to the City of Los Angeles, a site investigation was conducted from 1998 to 2002. The investigation did not find evidence that the 1,000-gallon gasoline UST was still in place, so it was assumed to be removed. Soil and groundwater samples detected petroleum hydrocarbons and fuel-related volatile organic compounds. A human health risk assessment concluded that the soil and groundwater contamination would not present an unacceptable risk to future commercial/industrial workers.
After publication of the site inspection report, the Navy determined that the site was no longer considered a CERCLA IRP site, reclassifying it as a leaking underground fuel tank site. Following this determination in 2004, enforcement responsibility was transferred to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program within the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Groundwater monitoring was conducted from 2005 to 2015 and soil gas monitoring occurred from 2012 to 2015. Long-term monitoring has demonstrated that light non-aqueous phase liquid has not been detected in groundwater and volatile organic compounds have been naturally attenuating. In addition, because the site is paved, an incomplete exposure pathway lowers the risk to human health. Human health risks from soil gas for current onsite commercial/industrial workers, offsite residents, and hypothetical future onsite residents are within acceptable risk ranges.
Based on the results of investigations and findings of risk evaluations, the Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a no further action determination for soil and groundwater in December 2017. The order requires that all owners and occupants comply with the deed restriction, land use covenant, and CERCLA five-year remedy review process.
The first five-year review was published in 2022. The review found that the remedy continues to be protective but recommended that seven monitoring wells be destroyed to prevent undesirable contaminant travel. Five-year reviews will continue to be prepared because contamination in media at the site is above levels that allow for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure at IRP Site 01.