Former Air Force Radar Station Laden with Asbestos

For more than two decades, people have been trying to garner support for a clean-up initiative at a former Air Force radar station located on a scenic mountain overlooking Silicon Valley. Now it seems that the clean-up project is gathering steam.

California Rep. Mike Honda is a supporter of the clean-up project. He hopes one day that the scenic summit of Mt. Umunhum will be open to hikers, bicyclists, and picnickers.

The former Almaden Air Force Station, which operated from 1957 to 1980, is located on the top of Mount Umunhum. Named for the Ohlone Indian word for hummingbird, the 3,486-foot peak towers above South San Jose. It remains off limits because 88 buildings where Air Force crew members and their families lived and worked sit abandoned. A once vibrant community is now nothing more than a crumbling ghost town contaminated with asbestos and lead paint.

Over the last two decades the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, the public agency that owns the land, has been butting heads with the Defense Department. The MROSD insists that the Defense Department should pay to demolish and haul away the buildings.

However, Pentagon officials disagreed about the extent of the federal government’s cleanup responsibilities.

Now that support for the clean-up is mounting, political pressure is being applied to the Defense Department.

In December, a request was submitted under President Obama’s federal stimulus program for the $11 million needed to demolish the buildings, repave five miles of Mount Umunhum Road, and open a small visitor center.

Rep. Mike Honda also has pressured the Army Corps to finish studies of soil contamination for the area. The Army Corps of Engineers is willing to clean up any contaminated soil, but contends that the buildings were in good condition in 1986 when the open space district bought the land.

Asbestos, a recognized carcinogen, can be fatal if inhaled, as it can cause mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer.