Peninsula News from PLA
The waterway beside NTC Park is ready to transfer from the Navy to the City. Finally.
We checked our archives and found a story about the process in our newsletter on January 11, 2018. Here is a direct link to that story, which we thought would be the first of many about this inviting inlet. But there’s been little news until now.
The waterway is included with the land transfer from the Federal Government following their 1993 closure of Naval Training Center San Diego.
Before the exchange, however, the Navy needed to clean up a bunch of toxic stuff embedded in the mud below – copper, lead, zinc and DDT.
That’s done.
Now, the ‘pay up’ part of the story. David Garrick’s report in Tuesday’s Union-Tribune indicates we’re on the hook for a bundle.
“With the cleanup completed last year, San Diego officials say they expect the Navy to sue the city sometime soon to recover part of the costs for the cleanup. A spokesperson for City Attorney Mara Elliott said the city’s costs are expected to be in the millions.”
Garrick also resurrected a dream we had heard little about in recent years.
“The boat channel is a key part of ambitious plans to someday create a bay-to-bay water link. Such a link would connect San Diego Bay – at the end of the boat channel – to the San Diego River and Mission Bay by constructing a canal usable by small boats.”
Would that fit in with future plans for the Midway District?
As for the NTC Park waterway, enjoy it. You’re paying for it!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Prior the City of San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and McMillin NTC, LLC had a 50-50 Profit Sharing Agreement.
Then City staff colluded with McMillan and the San Diego International Airport (SDIA), to changed the Profit Sharing Agreement to 100% McMillan NTC LLC, and 0% City RDA. With McMillin taking on all costs associated with cleaning up toxic waste at NTC
As soon as the deal was struck, McMillin then transferred over the east side toxic waste dump to the Airport for its Terminal 2 Expansion. The Airport then paid $67 million to clean up the Toxic Waste dump.
http://www.blogofsandiego.com/BlogArchives/2007-2nd-Quarter.htm#06/08/07a
Therefore, in theory. because McMillin NTC, LLC has 100% of the profits from Liberty Station, they also have 100% of the cost for cleaning the toxic waste from the Navy’s NTC Channel.
Then let’s hope the city turns around and sues McMillin for damages. Yeah, right: that would require them to care more about taxpayers’ money than they do our electeds donors’ campaign contributions.
Absolutely correct, thanks for pointing this out, laplaya. It is important to remember history. McMillan was also supposed to build an aquatic center also. Never happened. McMillin robbed the citizens of San Diego blind with the help of politician’s like Kevin Faulconer.