Common use of FINDINGS OF FACT Clause in Contracts

FINDINGS OF FACT. 18. The WFF is located on Route 175, in Wallops Island, Accomack County, Virginia. The WFF consists of three land parcels: the Main Base Parcel, the Mainland Parcel, and Wallops Island. At this time, there are no Select Sites on the Mainland Parcel. 19. NASA has operated the WFF Main Base Parcel since 1959 and has owned it since 1961. 20. Wallops Island was uninhabited until 1883 when the United States Government purchased land for a Life Saving Station on the north end of Wallops Island operated by the United States Life-Saving Service. The Life-Saving Service merged with the Cutter Revenue Service and Steam Boat Inspection Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. The original station was destroyed in 1933 and re-built in 1936 at its present location on Wallops Island. 21. In 1889, the remainder of Wallops Island was purchased by the Wallops Island Gun Club, a hunting club comprised of families from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The Club was incorporated and assumed ownership in 1933 as the Wallops Island Association, Inc. 22. The United States Navy (“Navy”) began purchasing private farmland near the Main Base Parcel in August 1942. The U.S. Department of the Army, Bureau of Public Works, began construction for an outlying airfield for Norfolk Naval Air Station in the fall 1942 and commissioned the Chincoteague Naval Auxiliary Air Station (“CNAAS”) in March 1943. The Navy used CNAAS primarily as a training facility for naval aviation units from 1943 to 1945; however, it was also used for anti-submarine operations. 23. In January 1946, the Naval Aviation Ordnance Test Station (“NAOTS”) was established at CNAAS. The NAOTS provided training for personnel and a test range to test, modify, and develop guided missiles, aircraft weapons, munitions, ordnance, and aviation fire control equipment. CNAAS became a Naval Air Station in 1950. 24. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (“NACA”), the predecessor to NASA, leased land on Wallops Island from 1945 to 1947. NACA purchased Wallops Island from the Wallops Island Gun Club in 1947. The Navy leased land on north Wallops Island from NACA from 1947 to 1959 for munitions and ordnance testing, operations, and training. 25. The Navy ceased training and flight operations and declared the CNAAS excess in June 1959. The NAOTS was officially disestablished on June 30, 1959. All real property at the Main Base Parcel (CNAAS and NAOTS) was initially occupied by NASA in June 1959 and transferred to NASA on December 1, 1961. 26. In 1959 NASA acquired the Mainland Parcel (which provides access to Wallops Island) and expanded its operations. 27. NASA began conducting formal environmental assessments and property inspections at WFF in approximately 1988. An initial property-wide environmental assessment resulted in the identification of 15 sites, which were then studied in a series of initial investigations. A series of site inspection (“SI”) reports, published in 1990, 1992, and 1996 present the results of these investigations. 28. On December 8, 2004, NASA and EPA entered into the 2004 Consent Agreement under which NASA agreed to conduct certain environmental response actions at WFF. 29. The VDEQ, EPA, NASA, and USACE reviewed records, photographs and other materials and concluded that some of the contamination identified at the Main Base Parcel and on Wallops Island are known to be associated with activities that took place prior to NASA’s presence at WFF, during operation of the CNAAS. As a result, USACE determined that the former CNAAS and NAOTS are FUDS pursuant to the DERP. 30. As part of the Wallops FUDS program, USACE has conducted investigation and remediation activities from 2000 to 2016 at certain areas of the former CNAAS property, including Select Sites. The DoD’s activities at the Select Sites included metal plating and etching; cleaning of tools and machines; generation of acidic overflow from recovery of photographic silver; aircraft and vehicle maintenance; handling of aircraft fuel spills and contaminated aircraft fuels; waste oil disposal; storage of aviation fuel; use, testing, and cleaning of ordnance and weapons; landfills; and sewage treatment. Volatile organic compounds (“VOCs,” including perchloroethene, trichloroethene, 1,2-dichloroethene, benzene, and toluene), semi-volatile organic compounds (“SVOCs,” including naphthalene, benzo(a)pyrene, and dioxins), polychlorinated biphenyls (“PCBs”), metals, total petroleum hydrocarbons (“TPHs”), munitions constituents, and munitions and explosives of concern were used or generated as part of the DoD’s operations and are Constituents of Potential Concern (“COPCs”) at Select Sites. 31. Certain Select Sites include areas at the WFF identified by USACE as Military Munitions Response Program (“MMRP”) sites. Offshore portions of MMRP sites are not intended to be addressed pursuant to this Consent Order. 32. In accordance with the 2015 MOA between the Army and NASA, the Army will provide funding to NASA to conduct CERCLA response actions at the Select Sites.