More Than One Toxic Problem

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
By Wendy Butler October 31st 2006

Rail yard environmental remediation could be likened to an archeological dig; however, the discovered artifacts are far from what developers want to keep for display.

Toxic contamination on rail yards is a “sticking point” in sales and parcel rehabilitation. That was a consensus among participants at the “Next Stop: Rail Yard Revitalization” workshop, which was held in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The workshop was presented by nonprofit organization Center for Creative Land Recycling.

The workshop panelists included developers, governmental officials, environmental agencies, an environmental insurance provider and parks and recreation representatives.

The highlighted developments were Union Park, proposed for Downtown Las Vegas; the Sacramento Rail Yards, a proposal for Downtown Sacramento; Oakland Central Station; Truckee Rail Yard; Yuma Riverfront Project in Yuma, Ariz.; and Eureka’s Marina Center.

All these named proposals involve ambitious plans to transform vacant, some largely contaminated parcels into mixed-use city centers.

And Union Pacific Railroad either owns or formerly owned all the parcels discussed at the “Next Stop” workshop.

The attendees talked about the different challenges involved with taking a parcel that once housed freight and passenger railroad traffic and converting it into an area that is safe enough environmentally to be the site of retail, offices, residences and, in some cases, parks and trails.

The word “brownfields” was used often during the day to describe what developers of these rail yard properties had to contend with.

“Brownfields are real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.

Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the
environment,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site at www.epa.gov/brownfields/.

Holliday Development Principal Rick Holliday told attendees that he purchased two UP parcels, the one in Oakland and the one in Truckee, “as is.”

A Bay Area native, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Urban Policy and Planning from the University of California, Berkley, he created Eden Housing and BRIDGE Housing Corporation, successful affordable housing corporations, before he founded Holliday Development in 1988.

Remediation of contaminated property is not a new venture for him.

“Who would ever buy the property with all that crap on it? We did it five times,” he told workshop attendees.

He said the Oakland site was fairly clean. He paid about $1 million to clean a “hot spot” on the parcel.

Union Park is proposed for 61 acres and Las Vegas Office of Business Development Director Scott Adams said that UP did an initial cleanup. The city of Las Vegas has owned it for five years. Newland Communities is the development consultant.

“It was a pretty heavy duty working rail yard,” Adams said. That use included rail car repairs, plus the presence of fuel tanks and other items creating “hot spots.”

Union Pacific Railroad General Director of Real Estate Mike Casey attended the workshop, but didn’t make a presentation. He did, however, respond to various comments about contamination that were made, including those by Security National Senior Vice President Brian Morrissey.

Morrissey formerly held the title at Union Pacific now held by Casey.

Morrissey gave an overview of planned Marina Center and the former UP rail yard or “Balloon Track,” which SN purchased Sept. 28 and on which it plans to construct the mixed-use development, that is, with the exception of the planned residences.

Per a deed restriction in the property’s sale, residences can not be built on the parcel, which, Morrissey said, is contaminated and the primary contaminants are lead, arsenic and some petroleum.

Currently SN is preparing a Remedial Action Plan, which it will present to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. The city of Eureka is preparing an Environmental Impact Report, which will consider Marina Center, which will be on the Balloon Track and adjacent to it covering about 38 acres. It will be comprised of industry, retail, residences and offices, as well as a planned wetlands preserve at Clark Slough.

Morrissey spoke about how Union Pacific requires a “full environmental release” for properties. He said that UP wants assurance that the site will be cleaned to the railroad’s standards, “which may, in fact, be higher than regulatory standards.”

He said that for this purchase it was also necessary to obtain environmental insurance and it was necessary to set up “environmental escrow,” which is money set aside for the parcel’s cleaning.

Those projected additional expenses aside, SN already has said that it paid $2 million for the property.

Apparently sparked by Morrissey’s assessment of the mandates and money, Casey raised his hand for a moment of attention.

“The primary goal is to ensure the property is remediated,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about, to make sure the property gets cleaned up.”

In a, perhaps, additional “toxic” matter, Humboldt Baykeeper had informed SN on Oct. 23 that because of its recent Balloon Track purchase, it will soon be named as a responsible party in the lawsuit that the Baykeeper initially filed in May against Union Pacific in federal court for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

North Coast Railroad Authority is also named in the lawsuit because it has a rail easement across the property.

Morrissey has already said that SN will assume full responsibility for the lawsuit’s defense.

That includes funding the legal battle, he said, during a workshop break on Thursday.

(Security National owns The Eureka Reporter.)

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