Return to Use Initiative
2004 Demonstration Project
MGM Brakes: Cloverdale,CA
THE SITE: The MGM Brakes Superfund Site occupies five acres in
Cloverdaie, Sonoma County, California. The site borders a main
thoroughfare very close to California Highway 101. For twenty years,the
MGM Brakes facility manufactured cast aluminum brake components
for large motor vehicles. Discharge of wastewater from the casting
plant led to poiychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in soils
and volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in ground water.
Since 1998, the iargely remediated site has remained idle. In a Five-
Year Review issued in January 2004, EPA declared the site's remedy to
be protective—soil cleanup has long been complete and semi-annual
ground water monitoring will continue until safe drinking water
standards have been achieved. Only two wells continue to exceed safe
drinking water standards and neither of these is located on the MGM
Brakes property. It is expected that ground water cleanup goals will be
achieved within the next five years.
THE OPPORTUNITY: The site sits on a busy highway and is zoned
for highway commercial uses. Under the Return to Use initiative, a
collaborative local and EPA effort to support the reuse of cleaned up
Superfund sites, EPA Regional staff are working with locai stakeholders
to enable the commercial redevelopment of the site.
THE BARRIER: Institutional controls do not allow excavation of more
than one cubic yard of earth from a depth greater than 15 feet below
ground surface. This precaution applies to only 1.2 percent of the site's
land area and should not impede the site's reuse. The primary obstacle
to reuse is the stigma associated with the property as a Superfund
site.
THE SOLUTION: In an effort to combat the negative associations
with the property, EPA has declared the MGM Brakes site ready for
commercial reuse in a Ready for Reuse (RfR) Determination, signed on
February 2,2005.
COMMERCIAL REUSE PLANNING: EPA hopes that the Ready for Reuse
Determination will give prospective buyers confidence to pursue
redevelopment of the property.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Susanne Perkins at jerkins.
susanne@epa.gov or (415) 972-3208.
Superfund Redevelopment Initiative	1
Barrier:
Superfund site stigma
Solution:
RfR Determination
• ACRES. 3 PARCELS
;or««oai v*gh*a? Zoning
MECKEL BOUCHER
w 894-9494
Before:
Cleaned up manufacturing site;
five acres of fenced, vacant land
along a major highway in Sonoma
County
After:
Five acres of land ready for com
mercial redevelopment
updated. December 2005

-------