Summer 2007
This is an archived article. Facts and links are current as of publication date.

California deeded the 62,000-acre Honey Lake Parcel to the federal government for military use in 1933. For 60 years, the Army used the area for maneuvers, aerial bombing training and detonating surplus explosives.

Courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Mustangs run along the shore of Honey Lake, Calif.

But in the early 1990s, the Army designated the Honey Lake Parcel surplus property.

Under the original agreement between California and the Army, the state could reclaim the Honey Lake Parcel. However, when the property became surplus, the California State Lands Commission raised legal and environmental concerns that delayed the transfer for more than a decade.

In December 2002, Congress enacted legislation to allow transfer of surplus military property to conservation-chartered, non-profit organizations for natural resource conservation. The organization can either retain title of the parcel or complete environmental work and transfer the property to a state, local or other entity for conservation purposes.

This paved the way for conservation organizations to accept BRAC properties. In 2003, the armed forces general military law was amended to allow conveyance of surplus real property for natural resource conservation.

Most former military sites have some environmental legacies and contamination issues, either soil contamination or unexploded ordnance.

In the Honey Lake OE Parcel there were both, but they were limited to a small portion of the overall property.

The most seriously contaminated area, the OE parcel, was not included in the 2003 transfer but was instead granted to the Center for Urban Watershed Renewal (CUWR) under a Lease in Furtherance of Conveyance. This allowed the 57,500-acre primary parcel to be readied for transfer to California through expedited environmental management and conservation programs.

By dividing the most contentious section from the whole parcel, the state was more willing to discuss the future of the primary parcel. The 4,500 acres in the OE parcel will be managed and transferred under a separate timetable.

The Honey Lake transfer was done by establishing a two-phase process: a conveyance phase and a conservation phase. Establishing these two processes allowed roles and responsibilities to be clearly defined and categorized, and for the team to identify tasks to be completed that would allow the primary parcel to transfer to California.

On Nov. 1, 2006, the Honey Lake Primary Parcel transferred from the CUWR to California, completing the process begun in 2003. The property, deeded to the military by the state in 1933, officially returned to California for conservation in perpetuity.

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