Zoning Panel Takes Step to Strip SOS of Permits

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission voted Wednesday to take the first step to strip Space Ordnance Systems of the zoning permits it needs to operate two explosives plants in the Santa Clarita Valley.

By a unanimous vote, the five-member panel told its staff to prepare a document to support revocation of the zoning permits of the defense contractor, which has been accused of hazardous waste violations at its plants in Mint Canyon and Sand Canyon. The board gave the staff three weeks to submit findings of fact to back the revocation, but set no date for a final vote on the action.

The decision went against the staff’s recommendation to merely modify the permits to require Space Ordnance Systems to follow through on an offer to spend an estimated $2.2 million to clean up contaminated soil and ground water in the vicinity of its plants.

Decision Called Punitive

David Breier, a lawyer for SOS, called the commission’s decision punitive and said that SOS “is spending megadollars” to bring its operations into compliance with environmental rules. Breier said the commission is responding to angry citizens and press reports despite lack of proof that SOS is actually responsible for the pollution around its plants.

A leader of the Santa Clarita Valley Hazardous Waste Task Force also criticized the vote, saying it will take years to get the sites cleaned up if SOS does not do the job voluntarily. Connie Worden, co-chairwoman of the group that was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to study the hazardous waste problems at SOS, said it is important that SOS stay in business so it will honor its cleanup pledge. “The commission’s action today may further jeopardize the health and safety of the people” living near the plants, she said.

But the commissioners were praised by Linda Kirk, who lives near the Mint Canyon plant. “I think they’re using their consciences,” she said. “I’m glad to see the county take a stand against this because usually the little guys lose and the big people win.”

A final vote to revoke the permits would not necessarily mean closing the SOS plants, which have about 450 employees.

Appeals Likely

SOS would be expected to appeal any such a action to the Board of Supervisors and, if necessary, to the courts. Breier said he believed the plants could not be shut down while those appeals are pending.

In the meantime, SOS could file applications for new zoning permits, a fact alluded to by Commissioner George Lefcoe, who offered the motion adopted Wednesday.

Lefcoe said the explosives manufacturer had “shockingly violated” the modest conditions attached to the zoning permits that were issued in the 1960s, including a requirement that it obtain a county industrial waste permit.

“They breached their right under the old rules. . . . Let them play by today’s rules,” he said, referring to the tougher conditions that likely would be imposed if new permits were sought.

Commissioner Delta Murphy said she could not “in good conscience” vote to keep the existing permits since SOS has not solved all of its waste disposal problems.

Because the motion adopted by the commission was somewhat long and rambling, staff members said after the meeting that they were not sure of all of its specifics, including the impact on firms that share the plant sites and are covered by the same zoning permits. They said there would probably be no effect on the operations of Garrett Corp., which owns the Mint Canyon site and leases a portion to SOS.

The Sand Canyon site, where SOS also leases space, is shared with four other firms that test or manufacturer explosives or propellants: Special Devices Inc., which owns the site, and Hughes Aircraft, Micronics International and Inflation Systems International. Lefcoe’s motion called for periodic review of the zoning permits as they apply to these other firms, which represent non-conforming uses in an agricultural zone.

Military, Aerospace Uses

SOS manufactures explosive devices for the military and aerospace firms, including flares that draw heat-seeking missiles away from fighter planes and explosive nuts and bolts that release parts of the space shuttle.

The company has been under siege legally since last March, when state and county officials accused it of numerous hazardous waste violations following coordinated raids on the company’s plants. Investigators accused SOS of dumping chemically tainted waste water in creeks and on the ground, of discharging diluted chemicals through sprinklers and of storing drums of hazardous wastes without permits.

Since then, the Planning Commission has been reviewing the zoning permits, and the company and three of its executives have been charged with criminal violations of hazardous waste laws.

Explosive Wastes

The company is also under orders from environmental agencies to dispose of about 1,500 drums of explosive wastes, which company officials say no waste dump will take. SOS’s request to burn the wastes in the desert in northeastern Los Angeles County will be heard Thursday by a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board.

SOS says that, although it is willing to clean up tainted soil, and to pump and filter contaminated ground water, those problems may have been caused at least partly by the other companies at Mint and Sand canyons. A consultant for SOS says that traces of toxic solvents affect about 3 million gallons of ground water at Sand Canyon and from 2 million to 16 million gallons at Mint Canyon.

The Planning Commission staff said there is no evidence that current waste-handling practices of the company are adding to the water pollution problems.