Marines

The Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base site covers 125,000 acres in San Diego County, California. The base provides housing, training, logistical and administrative support for the Fleet Marine Force units. Past disposal practices have contaminated the groundwater and soil. In an initial investigation, the Marine Corps found nine areas of contamination. Waste generation operations at this site include maintenance and repair of vehicles (trucks, tanks, and aircraft); landfill operations; waste disposal areas, such as scrap yards; and fire fighting drill areas. The base contains wetlands, streams, and rivers which feed into the Pacific Ocean. This land is the only remaining undeveloped area between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The 13,164-acre Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station site is located in Havelock, North Carolina, and includes an active U.S. Marine Corps installation – Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point. It opened in 1942. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed the site on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List (NPL) in 1994 because of contaminated groundwater, soil, sediment and surface water resulting from the installation’s operations. More recently, nearby private residential water wells have tested positive for PFAS, prompting the beginning of an extensive investigation into the root cause at the base in 2018.

In most discussions in the media regarding Camp Lejeune water contamination, often the focus is given only to 4 core chemicals – TCE, PCE, benzene and vinyl chloride. While these were prevalent in extraordinary amounts in the groundwater and soil for decades at Lejeune, they are not the only chemicals that were found.  According to the EPA, there were many more (at varying levels) determined as site contaminants and published as part of the original EPA Superfund listing. 

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (MCAS Yuma) occupies approximately 3,000 acres within the City and County of Yuma, Arizona. The City of Yuma, the nearest municipality, is located approximately one mile northwest of the Station. Both the City and the Station obtain their drinking water from the Colorado River through an irrigation canal. The City does not use groundwater for drinking water purposes. The nearest domestic groundwater well is approximately 0.8 mile downgradient from the Station.

The El Toro Marine Corps Air Station covers approximately 4,700 acres. Commissioned in 1943, it supported the Fleet Marine Forces in the Pacific Ocean, serving as the major west coast jet fighter facility. The Station was decommissioned as an active base in 1999 under the Base Realignment and Closure Act. To date the golf course parcel has been transferred under the Department of the Interior’s Land for Parks program and approximately 2800 acres have been sold through an auction and transferred in part to Heritage Fields LLC. Redevelopment efforts are on-going.