203. Superfund Cleanup

203. Superfund Cleanup of Fort Ord: Remnants of the Firing Ranges (54 seconds)
Ken Gray, District Services Manager

Location: By “FormerFiringRanges Become a State Park interpretive panel 

Hi. I am Ken Gray, District Services Manager for California State Parks. I have been involved throughout the transformation of turning this land from Fort Ord Army base ranges to a CaliforniaState Park.

When State Parks acquired FortOrd there were remnants of 15 firing ranges, 12 ammunition bunkers, and over 100 abandoned buildings. To clean the firing ranges the army had to remove and recycle over 700,000 pounds of spent ammunition and then truck the lead contaminated soil to an offsite landfill. This cleanup was part of the army’s superfund cleanup activities.

We also conducted a survey of the buildings and prioritized them for preservation or demolition. So the few remaining buildings are important because they help tell the story of this place as a military base and the site of the firing ranges.