$7 million contract awarded for cleanup at former Fort Ord

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $7 million contract to Burleson Consulting Inc. of Folsom for cleanup of the former Fort Ord.

The contract, awarded late last month, is specifically aimed at habitat restoration and biomonitoring of endangered species at the property. This phase of the environmental project is set to begin in fall of 2014 and end in the fall of 2019.

The Army has been involved in munitions cleanup at the former Fort Ord since 1993 and environmental preservation is an important part of that mission. A future related project will clear some vegetation with controlled burns in order to remove munitions safely from the area. Before that burning and munitions removal takes place, biologists with the habitat restoration and monitoring project will survey the land and remove endangered animals from the area.

The project includes restoration of 65 acres of central maritime chaparral plant community, which supports endangered plants such as the sand gilia and threatened Monterey spineflower, as well as many endemic shrub species. It also provides funds for replanting after the burn, providing grading and erosion control of the soil and monitoring plants on more than 9,000 acres of the Fort Ord National Monument to ensure that the habitat returns to the conditions observed prior to the Army’s cleanup activities.

The clean up of munitions at Fort Ord is expected to continue for another eight to 10 years. Eventually, the property will be turned over to the Bureau of Land Management.