Desert Residents Surprised by Tests at Wildflower Sanctuary : Toxic Waste Site Study Inflicts Scars on Community

In the winter it could be any other undeveloped swath of raw desert land. But after the spring rains, Los Angeles County’s Butte Valley Wildflower Sanctuary at Hi Vista comes alive with color.

So people in this windblown desert community about 95 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles were surprised to learn that county workmen were coming to the wildflower preserve about two weeks ago to bulldoze roads and pits.

On Saturday, about 300 people at a community meeting in Hi Vista learned that the county Parks and Recreation Department, which runs the preserve, also was surprised by the damage, and concerned about the cause: a county-initiated study of the preserve as a potential burial ground for toxic wastes.

John F. Weber, a deputy director of the parks agency, told residents that the county would do its best to restore the 232-acre sanctuary, where crews for the sanitation districts of the county have bulldozed five access roads and four pits to aid in collection of soil and ground water samples.

But Weber, who said naturalists on his staff consider the damage to be “absolutely massive,” told the crowd that it will probably be impossible to wipe out all traces of the work, “at least in my lifetime.”

Weber said parks officials knew about the testing but “were not aware of the extensive amount of grading” that would be done. “Our department granted verbal approval based on the information we had available,” Weber said.

“You could also say that I should have asked for more information,” Weber said in an interview, adding that if there are similar requests in the future, his department will “make sure we have complete sets of plans and specifications.”

In December, the Board of Supervisors, concerned about a lack of legal disposal sites for toxic refuse, directed county engineers to pinpoint between 10 and 15 sites in the county that might be suitable for storage, treatment, incineration or land disposal of hazardous wastes.

The wildflower sanctuary is among the sites being studied, and if it is selected, the damage done by the earth moving will be moot, the residents said.

Weber, acknowledging that some members of his staff had opposed testing at the preserve, said the agency will “have a lot of concerns that we have to address” if the land is judged suitable for toxic waste disposal.

Saturday’s meeting at the Hi Vista community hall was organized by residents to oppose the idea that the preserve might become a toxic waste dump and to fight a plan by Space Ordnance Systems, a defense contractor, to incinerate explosive wastes at a site three or four miles to the east.

Ken Kvammen, a division engineer with the county Department of Public Works, told residents that if the wildflower sanctuary were converted to a hazardous waste site, all wastes buried there would be pre-treated to reduce toxicity. He also said the site would not be used unless the underlying soils proved to be “very tight and self-contained,” so that movement of liquid would be limited “to about an inch a year.”

But residents who draw drinking water from wells suggested that there is ground water only 80 feet beneath the surface and they questioned the safety of the plan.

Richard Dowen, 38, vice president of the board of the Wilsona School District, said the district has an elementary school within three miles of the site. “You want a toxic waste dump within three miles of an elementary school?” he asked.

Luke Villa, 37, said it would make as much sense to put a toxic dump in Beverly Hills, since “those people can afford to take their families to the doctor. We’re just working people out here,” he said.

Villa, who said he is a Vietnam War veteran, raised a pant leg to display a rash he identified as chloracne from exposure to Agent Orange.

Villa said he’d already been poisoned once and “I don’t need any more.”