“We get to keep the planes, right?”

Twenty years after Mather Air Force Base officially closed, the United States Air Force handed over the last chunk of the 5,717-acre base to Sacramento County during a ceremony on June 5.

It took that long to sponge up every last bit of environmental muckery left at the Rancho Cordova site.

A onetime linchpin in the area’s economy and training ground for pilots, yesterday’s ceremony was more symbolic than anything else. The site is already home to random government buildings, businesses and a transitional housing program, among other things.

But hopefully no more contamination.

On an indulgent note, Mather is also the reason I exist. When my uncle was assigned to the base in the 1970s, he brought along my aunt and her sister, who met a chatty Iranian waiter while hostessing at a Sacramento restaurant. Years later, they got hitched and made me.

Mather has yet to account for that environmental spill.