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Project Profile
Located on California's picturesque Monterey Peninsula, Fort Ord served as an active military base from 1917 until its closure in 1994. The site encompasses 43 square miles, and is home to several unique species of vegetation and threatened and endangered species. In addition to the sensitive habitat on the base, Fort Ord is directly adjacent to Monterey Bay, a national marine sanctuary.
In 2000, Parsons and its teaming partners were selected by the USACE to clear the property of MEC and support other remedial activities to prepare the base for transfer to private development. Disposal of some ordnance required detonating it onsite. To date, the team has successfully performed over 570,000 work-hours without any lost time due to injuries. Parsons' safety strategies deployed at Fort Ord fostered leadership from the top down and individual responsibility among site personnel, many of whom were members of the local community and trained specifically for this project.
The tasks completed under this 5-year contract entail the cleanup of the ordnance and constituent contamination of Fort Ord, historical research and characterization studies that identified MEC, and the methodical conduct of RI/FSs to adhere to CERCLA requirements. Initially, seven Munitions Response Sites at Fort Ord posed an imminent threat to public safety due to their accessibility and the types of ordnance discovered there. Parsons supported the development of the Time Critical Removal Action (TCRA) documentation in 2001, and performed the resulting surface removals in the field by the end of the same year. In 2002, Parsons supported the development of an Interim Action Record of Decision for Ranges 43-48, and performed the resulting prescribed burn, surface, and subsurface clearance between 2003 and 2005.
The team has safely and successfully performed over 570,000 hours without a lost day of work due to injury. The project's excellent safety record is a direct result of the level of health and safety planning and daily enforcement of the policies and procedures that were specifically designed for the uneven, rugged terrain; identification and removal of the MEC; operation of the field equipment; and correct use of personal protective equipment.
Parsons has performed surface removal actions on more than 2,600 acres and subsurface removal actions on more than 750 acres. A total of 12,800 MEC items (3,146 of which contained high explosives) have been identified and detonated. Over 2 million pounds of hard targets, munition debris, and range residue have been removed and recycled by Parsons. The rest of the cleanup remaining under the current contract includes the removal of vegetation, controlled burns, and continued removal of MEC and range residue in select, high-density portions of the impact area.
Fort Ord has been successful on several levels: the amount of mitigation performed without injury; the team's ability to clear MEC-impacted sites for safe, future use; the T&E habitat protection occurring during the project; and the re-establishment of native flora and fauna to the base.
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