Salem-News.com El Toro articles Page 23

Contaminated Marine Base in Irvine Slated for Public Park and Community Development (VIDEO REPORT)

This is part four in a continuing video news report series on TCE chemical waste stemming from the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - A veil of secrecy seems to cloud and obscure the real facts behind the closure of the El Toro Marine air base. Documents from the Navy confirm that El Toro is a hazardous waste zone. It is not new information, an environmental cleanup project has been underway for some time, but the extent of the problem and the distance the toxic contamination has traveled from the base is a serious issue, particularly for the Irvine community of Woodbridge.

Memories of the El Toro Marine Air Base: a Modern Day Ghost Town

This feature is part of a series report on contamination at the El Toro Marine base; it includes a special slideshow presentation.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - The sound of afterburners from fighter jets soaring into the California sky over the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station have been silent for almost a decade. They are replaced by an eerie silence that envelopes the looming buildings and hangars.

I have many memories of my time as a Marine at this place and they have been flooding back over the last several days as I've spent time here investigating a massive hazardous waste situation created when the Marines dumped massive amounts of TCE- Trichloroethylene, into the groundwater. Contact with the potent chemical degreaser can quickly turn fatal.

Deadly Toxic Chemicals From Marine Base Threaten Irvine Neighborhoods (VIDEO REPORT)

A legacy of deadly, hazardous waste from a closed Marine air base is quietly invading parts of Orange County, California. This is Part 3 in a continuing series of video reports on Salem-News.com.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - Toxic waste from the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine is seeping underground into one of the richest neighborhoods in southern California, putting people at risk.

Irvine, California Threatened by Contaminated Water From El Toro Marine Base (VIDEO REPORT)

What happens when wealthy Republicans suddenly find out that the home they invested so much in, could be sitting on top of one of the most dangerous, polluted places in the nation?

(IRVINE, Calif.) - A number of government agencies deny that the city of Irvine has big, big problems from TCE, Trichloroethylene; a toxic chemical used in the maintenance of Marine Corps jet fighters at the former at the Marine Corps Air Station. They reject the notion that the TCE has penetrated the groundwater here and as a result, is a serious health hazard for residents in Irvine, California.

But large amounts of evidence tell another story.

Reports from the U.S. Navy indicate that TCE contamination stemming from the Marine base at El Toro is in fact a huge issue in this part of Orange County.

El Toro Water Contamination Reports Will Continue

Technical delays have slowed down progress but a number of reports will soon be posted.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - I have spent the last several days in the area of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in what is now Irvine, California, investigating the status of the water contamination that stems from the former air base.

For those who not familiar. El Toro, in the heart of Orange County, California, is an EPA "Super Fund" site and contamination in the groundwater here is connected to TCE- trichloroethylene, perchlorate and other chemicals. The base is being developed into a public park under the "Great Parks Corporation" in Orange County and also is the site of new home construction.

Irvine, California's city staff says it is the safest city in America, but mounting evidence from a number of sources including the Navy and the EPA, tell a story of decades of environmental abuse. A "plume" of TCE has traveled several miles from the base and now occupies an area in one of California's most affluent neighborhoods.

Sick Marines and Contaminated Water: Questions Surround El Toro Marine Air Base (VIDEO REPORT)

Marines who served here need to know the possible health hazards so they can seek treatment. TCE causes mutations, intestinal disorders and cancer.

(EL TORO, Calif.) - El Toro Marine Air Station used to be the premiere Marine Corps aviation facility on the west coast. It closed in 1999 and is in the midst of big change; a park will soon occupy the land and new homes are being built. But while the politicians move forward and families move into new homes on the former base, contamination in the base's water system from a degreasing chemical is staying off the radar.

A group of veterans that growing quickly in number, say El Toro, along with the active Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune on the east coast, are major TCE contaminant zones. TCE, Trichloroethylene, was a chemical degreaser used to clean the parts off Marine Corps jet fighters.

Watch for our Series on El Toro Marine Base Contamination

All Marines and their family members who were stationed at El Toro and Camp Lejeune, where the contamination-related problems are a matter of record and have inspired several ongoing investigations, need to be aware of the possible related health risks.

(SALEM, Ore.) - El Toro MCAS was the Marine Corps' top aviation base on the west coast until its 1999 closure that sent the 3rd Marine Air Wing down to Miramar, "Fighter Town USA", which booted the Navy and its Top Gun program off to the Nevada desert where it is now located in Fallon.

The story of El Toro begins in haste; World War Two was on and the Marines needed a place to train and organize the aerial arm of the war effort, so the farm fields and orange orchards around Trabuco Canyon Road in Orange County were plowed down and the runways and associated buildings were constructed.

In-Depth Look at El Toro Marine Base TCE Contamination Begins Next Week

Time to get to the bottom of a big environmental mess involving a former Marine Corps base in Southern California.

(SALEM, Ore.) - For years, a chemical degreaser called Trichlorethylene, or TCE for short, was used to clean fighter jets at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Southern California. The U.S. government is notorious for poor environmental practices, and this ranks among its most profound; as generation after generation of Marines were exposed to the toxic and lethal nature of TCE, a product primarily manufactured by DOW Chemicals.

Various squadrons on the base used the deadly degreaser and all of the runoff was hosed away down the flightline and into the water basins.

The base of the 'TCE plume' as it is called, flowed right through the Marine Wing Support Group-37 area. This is where I spent the majority of a three year enlistment as a young Marine, totally oblivious to the condition of the water and the ground that we worked on every day.

Team Black Rhino - All Marines Are Infantrymen

From the article "Black Rhino Charges Through Desert" submitted to Salem-News.com by Lance Corporal Michael Stevens with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Iraq's AL-Jazirah Desert.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Unlike other military services, all Marines are trained as basic infantrymen, regardless of their military occupational specialty. This means that a general in charge of logistics, a military police Corporal trained in law enforcement, and others like communications specialists, pilots and Marines pushing papers in administrative services, are trained and qualified to grab an M-16 and instantly become a member of an infantry platoon.

When I was in the Marine Corps, serving with Marine Wing Support Group-37 in the 3rd Marine Air Wing during the early 1980's, stories about Vietnam were told and retold and one of the specific aspects was that guys from our squadron often served as helicopter door gunners.

Former Marine Testifies Over Deadly Contaminated Water at Camp Lejeune

Former Marine and other witnesses tell subcommittee that communities were left vulnerable to toxic chemicals.

(SALEM, Ore.) - It is hard to find a sadder story or a more determined Marine than Jerome M. Ensminger of Richlands, North Carolina. He lost his daughter Janey to cancer after a long struggle in the 1980's. At the time they could not figure out what caused it.