Chapters 1 - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Chapter 4
while also preparing a scoping plan to identify how best to reach the 2020 limit. The CARB
recently adopted a statewide 2020 GHG emissions limit and an emissions inventory, along with
requirements to measure, track, and report GHG emissions by the industries it determined to be
significant sources of GHG emissions. In addition, the CARB has developed a Scoping Plan that
outlines California’s strategies for reducing GHG emissions. In addition to the passage of AB 32,
the Governor of California also set a long range reduction goal of reducing GHGs to 80 percent
below 1990 levels by 2050.
4.2.9 Contaminants
With the exception of any contamination and spills associated with the oil operation on Oil Island,
the Navy is responsible for the identification, assessment, characterization, and clean-up or control
of contaminated sites within NWSSB, including the areas within the Refuge that were
contaminated prior to establishment of the Refuge. In 1985, the Navy conducted an assessment of
NWSSB, which included the Refuge, to identify sites posing a potential threat to human health or
the environment that might warrant further investigation. The assessment identified eight sites
within the Refuge boundary (U.S. Navy 2011). To address these sites, which are referred to as
“restoration sites,” the Navy has established an Installation Restoration (IR) program that is
administered by Naval Facilities Southwest Division with regulatory oversight provide by the
California-EPA Department of Toxic Substance Control and the California Water Resources
Control Board, Santa Ana RWQCB. As illustrated in Figure 4-12, some of these sites are located
only partially within the Refuge boundary, while others are located entirely within the Refuge.
Table 4-4 provides a brief description of each site and the current status of their remediation. Of
the eight sites, only three have yet to be fully remediated. For two of the sites, remediation is the
responsibility of the Navy, while the third site, Oil Island, is the responsibility of the facility
operator, Breitburn Energy Corporation. Possible contaminants from these three sites include
lead, antimony, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), solvents, fossil fuels and derived
products, asbestos, and mercury (U.S. Navy 2011).
Contaminants can also enter the Refuge via a variety of transport pathways involving surface
water, groundwater, wind, and living organisms. Surface water enters the Refuge from adjacent
Navy lands via several small drainage channels; urban runoff and storm water from upstream
urban areas flows into Anaheim Bay via the Bolsa Chica channel and the East Garden Grove-
Wintersburg channel; and runoff from adjacent roads such as Pacific Coast Highway and
Westminster Boulevard enters Anaheim Bay via various drainage culverts. Some common
pollutants that can be carried in these waters include fertilizers, pesticides, oil and grease,
detergents, coolant, and paint. Groundwater transport is less likely to move contaminants from
outside NWSSB, but could transport contaminants from adjacent IR sites into the Refuge’s
wetland areas. Wind can transport airborne contaminants such as fine particulate matter into
wetland areas.
Fish, invertebrates, plants, and other organisms can also provide pathways for transporting
contaminants from sediments, surface waters, and/or groundwater to other species. Fish, which
are the most likely organisms to transport contaminants into the Refuge from other parts of the
bay or open ocean, tend to accumulate contaminants in concentrations higher than those present in
the sediments from which they were exposed. This bioaccumulation can occur through direct
exposure to contaminated sediments or through dietary intake of other exposed organisms. This
could put other species, such as the California least tern, at risk for exposure to contaminants
because they forage on small fish that are subject to bioaccumulation.
4-34 Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge