[Sosfbay-discuss] Save Hangar One

[Tian Harter]

  >
*>Tuesday, June 13 at 11:45 AM*
 >
*>Lenny Siegel *
 >
*>Save Hangar One*
 >
 >
 >Lenny Siegel is executive director of the Center for Public 
Environmental Oversight,
 >a non-profit organization that promotes and facilitates public 
participation in the
 >oversight of environmental activities at federal facilities, private 
"Superfund" sites,
 >and Brownfields. Lenny is also founder of the Alliance for a New 
Moffett Field and
 >a spokesperson for the Save Hangar One Committee.
 >
 >Lenny will review the engineering evaluation/cost analysis (EE/CA) for 
Hangar #1
 >recently released by the U.S. Navy, and discuss the efforts of local 
historic
 >preservation activists to lobby for a non-demolition alternative. The 
EE/CA summarizes
 >the evaluation of 13 alternatives for dealing with the contamination, 
and describes
 >the Navy’s recommended alternative (complete demolition and offsite 
disposal).
 >
Lenny began his talk by pointing out that Hanger One is one of the 
largest free
standing building in the United States. It is 1133 feet long, 200 feet 
high, and
is by far the most recognizable building in Santa Clara County. Most 
long term
residents of the Peninsula have many fond memories of seeing it on their way
past Moffett Field. Some even remember seeing the USS Macon, a giant helium
airship so big it could work as an aircraft carrier, land there.

Lenny explained that as part of the remedial investigation of the 
wetlands at the
end of the runway, a NASA environmental official had found some rare PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyls) in the land and had traced them back to 
Hangar One.
Further research had brought to light that the walls of Hangar One are 
made of
Galbestos, a sandwich of galvanized steel, PCBs, and Asbestos. The Navy now
wants to tear the building down. They think they can do it for about $12 
million.

Save Hanger One was organized last summer to prevent this from happening.
Lenny waved a NASA study that he says shows the costs not included in 
the Navy
analysis bring the actual costs of removing the building to $30 million, 
about what
it would cost to remove the Galbestos siding and replace it with 
something that
looks similar enough but isn't toxic. There have been public meetings 
about the
future of Moffett Field where Save Hangar One turned out hundreds of people
who expressed support for Hangar One to the Navy.

The leading proposal on what to do with the building if it is saved is 
to put a
museum there. (The most recent TASC speaker spoke on that, please see
http://www.mv-voice.com/story.php?story_id=1607 for more information.)
Space World has succeeded in putting together a blue ribbon board, including
names like Astronaut Sally Ride and Hollywood's James Cameron, but they
are all too busy with other projects to do much work on the fundraising.

Lenny is looking for all kinds of help on the project of Saving Hanger One.
If you know people with power and influence, he would be grateful if you 
would
enlist their help in saving Hangar One. If you have time to write a 
letter or email
to the Navy in support of Hanger One, the address is:

*Mr. Rick Weissenborn
BRAC Environmental Coordinator
Navy BRAC PMO West
1455 Frazee Road Ste 900
San Diego, CA 92108-4310
richard.weissenborn at navy.mil*

During Q&A the following came up:

The general attitude in the Save Hangar One community is "let's save
the building before we get into an argument about what to do with it next."

If Hangar One is torn down, the air safety rules limit the size of any
replacement building to 70 feet tall. The site is probably not suitable for
housing because it is right next to a working airport. There is also a 
lot of
TCE contamination in the area that might make direct reuse a bit of a
problem.

For more information please visit:

http://www.savehangarone.org/
http://www.nuqu.org/

-- 
Tian
http://tianharter.org
In case you didn't know, I was 2nd in the Green Party Senate Primary.
I got at least 9,208 votes, more than I ever got in one election before.
I spent about 52 cents a vote. Todd Chretien spent about $2.50 a vote.
You can see my concession speech on the front page of TianHarter.org