Development: Ohlone College Newark Center

Location: Newark, California

Approximate size: 81 acres

Former use: Primarily agricultural uses. Railroad to the south, and adjacent manufacturing

resulted groundwater monitoring wells on the site.

Completion date: Completed construction in 2008 and received the LEED Platinum Certification in December 2008.

Ohlone Community College had an established campus in neighboring Fremont with 8,000 students. The goal of this project was to build a new public college campus in an underserved community that showcases and practices sustainability, and serves as a model for others, according to David Dixon, Sr. Associate with project stakeholder Treadwell & Rollo, San Francisco.
 

The Ohlone College Newark Center (OCNC) focuses on teaching health sciences and technology and has launched a new environmental studies program for the college. At the dedication for the new center, California’s Lieutenant Governor, John Garamendi, summed up how well Ohlone achieved their goal.

“You (Ohlone College) have set the standard for California public buildings. I want every other campus and building to be designed and built to the very highest environmental standards. And when they say it can’t be done, I’m going to ask, ‘have you been to Ohlone?’”

Unique attributes: The first College Campus in the world to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification. In June 2009 it was announced that the campus achieved a net zero carbon footprint during the months of April through August 2008 and has a 70% reduction in overall energy consumption for a comparable new building. It was awarded a US EPA Environmental Hero Award in 2008 for its Environmental Leadership.

Funding mechanisms/redevelopment costs: The primary funding source was a local bond approve by community voters. The US EPA also awarded the site a $200,000 cleanup grant to help jump-start the cleanup. Total project cost (including land, soft costs, hard costs, equipment) was $109,180,490.
 

Contamination/remediation solutions deployed: The primary contaminants were the pesticides dieldrin, toxaphene, DDT, DDE and DDD in shallow soil which exceed applicable preliminary remediation goals (PRGs) for residential and commercial uses. Sustainability was a primary concern with the school, and that carried over to sustainable remediation considerations. Consequently, Treadwell & Rollo developed a plan to relocate the pesticide impacted soil from the campus area which occupied 50% of the 81 acre site, to unused portions of the site, rather than landfill thousands of cubic yards of potentially productive topsoil.
Bio-swales and wetlands were created to clean storm runoff from the campus, and also serve as living classrooms for the environmental studies department. This soil is considered suitable for continued agricultural use by the DTSC, and Treadwell & Rollo is currently assisting the college in evaluating in-situ remediation options. Total remediation costs were approximately $750,000. Pesticides were legally applied at the site, so the site was not generally considered within the jurisdiction of the US EPA, or consequently, eligible for a Brownfields Cleanup Grant. The team sought and obtained concurrence from EPA Region 9 General Counsel that this type of pesticide impacted site is a Brownfield, applied for and were awarded a grant.

 

Environmental ROI: A Removal Action Plan (RAP) and US EPA approved Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) were prepared to ensure robust remediation confirmation procedures were performed. Extensive confirmation sampling and analyses had to pass 95% upper confidence level statically analyses, and duplicate and quality control sampling and laboratory data validation was performed.

Stakeholder collaboration: The effort was driven by local, state and federal involvement. Primary project stakeholders included:

• The College District, which had the vision and goals to team members to think out-of-the-box to remediate, design and build using sustainable principals;

• The city of Newark and Newark citizens, who wanted a college campus in their community;

• The California EPA, which was the lead oversight agency;

• The State Dept. of Education and State Architect, which was faced with having to approve design concepts they had never dealt with before;

• The US EPA, which was overseeing the remediation where their grant money was being used.

Innovative designs and energy-efficient technologies implemented:

• 1,585 solar panels that generate over 50% of the building’s energy needs The Newark Center features one of the largest solar power collection systems in California’s Silicon Valley, a 600kW solar collection system covering 38,000 square feet.

• 26 miles of geothermal ground coils were installed underground to use the earths natural cooling abilities.

• Two 10-foot diameter enthalpy wheels, fresh-air energy recapture systems that save up to 25% of costs for cooling and heating, and provide over twice the required fresh airflow.

• Water efficient landscaping, consisting mostly of native plants and grasses.

• High lumen energy efficient lighting that exceed California’s tough Title 24 energy standards.

• Low flow water fixtures throughout.

• Ground denim insulation, more efficient than traditional fiberglass.

• Bio-swales and wetlands created to clean storm runoff from the campus, and also serve as living classrooms for the environmental studies department.

Recyclable materials used to classify as a 'green' development:

• Carpet made from 30% to 38% recycled plastics

• Up to 97% recyclable, ergonomically-designed furniture

• Recycled content terrazzo flooring

• Ninety-one per cent of the construction waste was recycled.

• Low VOC emission paint

Job Creation: The new school is providing huge economic benefits and opportunities for the local community. Over 3,000 full-time equivalent students are enrolled at the school, and the college has hundreds of employees. The school focuses on health sciences such as nursing, technologies such as computer programming and vocational training. This will have great long term benefits of helping to teach and re-train the community members. This is especially fortunate for the community as 4,700 workers were just laid off when the NUMMI Toyota plant closed in April 2010. The NUMMI plant is located just 4 miles from the OCNC.

Social Benefits: Neighborhood business and restaurants are seeing positive impact of the thousands of new students and employees (customers) attending the school on a formerly vacant and blighted site. This equates to increased tax revenue for the city. Vacant properties adjacent to the campus are now being considered for housing, and public bus routes have been added to accommodate the new demand.

Replacing the blighted vacant lot with the new college campus has brought people, public transit, services, streetlights etc. to a formerly underutilized area. The campus also has it's own police force to improve security in the area. Nearby retail space is more valuable and will likely be better kept up. Additionally, the formerly exposed pesticide-containing soil is no longer open to the public, and where it is still present is actively managed with an agency approved soil management and has with a vegetative cover to prevent airborne migration. 
 

 

Project challenges: For the remediation it was coming up with a way to clean the 40 acres designed for the campus to unrestricted criteria in a short time frame without the traditional polluting and inefficient dig and hauling to a land fill option. For the campus it was being able to design a truly unique college campus that is a showcase of green technologies and sustainability, that also proves the economic feasibility of green design.