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(IRVINE, CA) – The death knell for Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California, once the premier Marine Corps air station, was sounded in 1985 when trichloroethylene (TCE) was found in three wells during a routine well inspection by the Orange County Water District (OCWD). Two wells were off the base, the other on the base.
Courtesy: USN
By 1990, El Toro was placed on the National Priority List (EPA Superfund), made the Navy's 1993 BRAC hit list, shut down operations after 56 years of service in 1999, and sold at a public auction in 2005 by the Navy to a Heritage Fields LLC, a venture of land developers.
The Navy spent hundreds of millions in remediation of soil and groundwater contamination. Even so, the $650 million from the sale of base had to put them in the black.
