THANK YOU TO WINE SPONSORS AT THE OCTOBER MEETING

To cap off a spectacular program at the Presidio last month (see summary in the next article), our Programs Chair, Jennifer Coats, invited attendees to bring a bottle of wine for the catered dinner in exchange for some marketing and publicity. What a success! The chapter warmly thanks you all. We think some companies and/or individuals may have been left off this list, and for this we sincerely apologize as we endeavor to improve our system of accounting. If you are not on this list, please let us know! Thanks now, to: ATC, Bechtel, Geo/Resource Consultants, NCC-ACHMM, Spencer Environmental, and Weiss Associates.

SUMMARY OF OCTOBER 17th, 2001 MEETING AT THE PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO
Tour of Environmental Programs at the Presidio
Synopsis prepared by Jim Breitlow/CHMM and NCC-ACHMM Secretary

Jennifer Coats, CHMM and NCC-ACHMM Program Chair, and several of her coworkers arranged a very interesting tour of the Presidio Trust's environmental programs at the Presidio of San Francisco. The tour elicited very high interest, with more than 40 members and non-members gathering for the tour and the dinner presentation that followed in the Log Cabin at the Presidio.

The U.S. Congress created the Presidio Trust with the mission of making the Presidio, formerly an Army base and now a unit of the National Park System, financially self-sustaining. At the same time, the Trust also has the formidable task of remediating contaminated sites and furthering the environmental objectives of a national park.

First stop on the tour was the site of the Letterman Complex, where the former Letterman Army Medical Center and the adjoining Letterman Army Institute of Research are being deconstructed to make way for the Letterman Digital Arts Center, the future home of Lucas Film's digital arts campus. The deconstruction so far had generated over 234 tons of salvageable materials (e.g., boilers, air conditioning units, and cabinetry), and over 1600 tons of recyclable metals. When deconstruction is completed, construction of the Digital Arts Center will begin in about a year.

The tour also included a presentation of the Trust's integrated pest management program at the golf course, where environmentally benign pest control methods and materials are tested and developed. The tour concluded with an exploration of Battery Howe-Wagner, which is one of the facilities maintained by the Trust for disaster preparedness.

Chris Nelson, the Trust's Environmental Remediation Manager, gave the dinner presentation on the stakeholder issues involved in the remediation of contaminated sites. In an agreement with the Army, the Trust is receiving $100 million to finance the cleanup. The Trust also has a $100 million insurance policy to cover any cleanup cost overruns and to provide cleanup funding for any previously unknown environmental conditions. Several stakeholders have an interest in the remediation. The principally involved regulatory agencies are the National Park Service, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Also involved are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers (primarily on wetlands issues), and the City and County of San Francisco (focusing on hazardous materials and hazardous waste management, and the remediation of underground storage tank sites). The Presidio has an active Restoration Advisory Board, representing the public at large and providing feedback from neighborhood and civic groups, to review the scores of documents prepared in conjunction with conducting the remediation.

The NCC-ACHMM sincerely appreciates the time and effort that Jennifer and the many other Trust representatives invested in this very successful event.