April 18, 2013 -- The Santa Monica City Council will vote Tuesday whether to commit another $1.3 million to monitoring the Olympic Groundwater Basin for possible contamination, as well as more than $2 million to repave Lincoln Boulevard south of the I-10 Freeway.

The $2 million would bankroll a series of projects meant to improve the stretch of Lincoln Boulevard from the Santa Monica freeway to Ozone Avenue that the City took over from State in May 2012.

The projects would include paving and striping, installing video detection at five intersections and repairing damage to parking lanes.

In order to “mitigate congestion and construction related traffic impacts along this busy transportation corridor,” staff recommends that the paving and striping work be performed at night between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Federal funds will pay for about $1.5 million of the project while about $500,000 will come from local sources.

On Tuesday, the City Council will also decide whether to extend its contract with ICF Consulting Services -- which has worked with the City since 2008 – through the end of June to keep an eye on chemicals that may seep into to the groundwater from the former Papermate site. The extension would bring the five-year agreement to a total of $3.77 million.

“In 2009, it became apparent that the former Papermate facility (owned by Gillette and, by acquisition, Proctor & Gamble) was a significant source of the Perchloroethylene (PCE) and Trichloroethylene (TCE) observed in groundwater,” staff said.

“City staff requested additional assistance from ICF to help develop a technical argument supporting the City’s position that releases from Gillette’s operation had indeed contaminated groundwater in the Olympic Well Field,” staff said.

As a result, Procter & Gamble Co. -- which owned the factory after it purchased Gillette in 2005 -- agreed to pay $68 million to clean up the water polluted by the Papermate factory, which operated until 2006.

Staff maintains that ICF's long-time work in the area and the firm's “unique knowledge of the Olympic Well Field” and surrounding areas makes it suited for the task of implementing the City's Olympic Well Field Management Plan.

“Given the project- and site-specific knowledge and experience obtained by ICF during the previous five years, coupled with their performance and sensitivity to City needs, staff recommends retaining ICF for continued monitoring and support services,” staff said.

The Plan calls for ICF to install five new deep groundwater monitoring wells for a total of about $550,000.

ICF would continue to monitor old wells at the Gillette site, the City Corporation Yard and the Bergamot property to the tune of $332,000.

Since the City Corporation Yard is scheduled to close this year, ICF will also help with the dismantling and “abandonment” of the remediation system, which will cost about $388.

ICF will continue to offer “as-needed” technical support, costing about $110,000. ICF's contract is paid with money from the settlement with Procter & Gamble Co.

Papermate is the site of the proposed Bergamot Transit village center, a 767,000-square-foot development by Texas-based developer Hines that would include a new park and street, open spaces and pedestrian walkways.