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May 28, 2023

Newport Beach approves treatment system of vapor from old Ford Aeronutronics facility

An intricate treatment system will be built to remove gasses still present in the soil at the site of a long-ago shuttered Ford Motor Co. facility in Newport Beach. The treatment facility will remove

An intricate treatment system will be built to remove gasses still present in the soil at the site of a long-ago shuttered Ford Motor Co. facility in Newport Beach.

The treatment facility will remove volatile organic compounds once used to clean metal parts during the Ford Aeronutronics facility’s operation between 1957 and 1993 on 200 acres near Bison Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard, Ford Road and Jamboree Road.

The facility was demolished between 1993 and 1996, and cleanup under the guidance of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board was done to remove the chemicals. The area has since been redeveloped with homes.

Now, more sophisticated equipment for testing – and required ongoing monitoring – has found evidence of the volatile organic compounds in the soil and newer more stringent regulatory standards require stepped-up efforts by Ford. Officials with the water board found that the chemicals still present in the form of gasses could be hazardous to nearby residents by impacting the indoor air quality of their homes.

This week, the Newport Beach City Council agreed to issue a temporary permit for the treatment plant, which is expected to be built over the next year.

Several residents in the nearby community – close to Hartford and Country Club drives – raised safety concerns about where the treatment system would vent and objected to the 10-foot-tall building that would house it and took an appeal to the Planning Commission. In June, the commission denied their appeal and this week, the council reviewed the project, including the resident concerns, but agreed unanimously that the cleanup must move forward.

“Mature cities with former aeronautics sites will be dealing with environmental issues for a long time,” Councilmember Will O’Neill said. “Taking steps to remediate can create tough situations. This is a tough situation, but moving forward with the vapor remediation is the right thing to do.”

Ford’s vapor extraction project was approved by the water quality board in January and “will extract vapor from the soil through the wells and deliver it to the treatment system where granular activated carbon removes the chemicals and then the clean vapor will be discharged into the atmosphere,” according to the city staff report. A blower will release the chemicals into the air once they’ve been vacuumed from the soil – a plan that has been approved by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

While nearby residents of condominium complex said they recognize the importance of removing the gasses, they have expressed concerns to officials over the appearance of the facility and is proximity to their homes.

But city staffers assured council members and the public this week that the planned location – seven other areas in the city were also considered, but deemed not feasible – would be aesthetically compatible and not be an obstruction.

City officials said the facility will be designed in a similar look to the nearby community so that it blends in. It will have a gabled roof and its exterior siding will be painted to match. Plants will also be used to soften the overall impact.

Safety concerns are also being addressed by engineers who are working on the project for Ford, officials said.

As far as its proximity to residents in condos in the Bayridge Park community on Hartford Drive, Ford officials said that the vent to release the chemical vapors would be located as far away as possible. The release and monitoring will also be watched over carefully by SCAQMD.

City officials said construction on the facility is expected to start within the next three months.

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