Metro Rail Hit by Foul Odors, Cries of Foul Over Tax

On the heels of its recent ground breaking, the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway project has run into a problem of foul-smelling ground water near Union Station that could delay construction and add millions in unexpected cleanup costs.

And, on another front, opposition to a newly imposed, downtown Metro Rail property tax grew as owners of the huge Broadway Plaza hotel and shopping complex joined the fight.

At this point, the ground water problem appears to be more a public nuisance than a health issue, officials say. High levels of hydrogen sulfide--the gas that emits a strong rotten-eggs smell--have been found in ground water beneath the east end of the proposed subway tunnel.

Dump Water Into River

The Southern California Rapid Transit District, which plans to dig through the water table level during construction, had hoped to extract 25 million gallons of water a day from the Union Station terminal site and dump it into the nearby Los Angeles River. The sulfide problem was discovered several months ago during test pumping. Odor emissions became so bad that city inspectors, responding to complaints, had to shut down the operation.

The area in question is largely industrial and northeast of the Civic Center, although there are residences several blocks east of the river where prevailing winds could carry odors from the pumping operation.

RTD officials have generally downplayed the problem and insisted something will be worked out.

But the city Board of Public Works was warned by its staff Friday that the matter has not been resolved and “the timely construction of the Metro Rail project is seriously jeopardized” by the problem. J. Malcolm Toy, a senior city engineer, told the board that state and city agencies expect a cleanup process costing about $20 million will have to be added to the Metro Rail project before the water can be released into the river, which empties into Long Beach Harbor. Such a process would reduce the problem of strong odors pervading the area.

RTD officials have opposed embarking on any such project. In a recent letter to the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, which will decide whether and how the pumping may proceed, RTD officials argued that treatment is “economically infeasible.”

But Toy said the hydrogen sulfide levels found in the ground water--45 to 90 parts per million--are substantially higher than the unofficial one part per million limit the city and state have set on Los Angeles River discharges for the last 25 years.

Nelson Wong, a senior engineer with the state water quality board, said the state “would probably require treatment” unless studies being conducted by the RTD show there would be no odor problem. “I don’t know how far (the smell) will carry,” he said. “Your nose is extremely sensitive to sulfides. It seems very likely we would have some nuisance problems.”

The earliest the state board is likely to decide the matter is January, Wong said. RTD officials had hoped to award the Union Station tunneling contract in January. That has been pushed back to mid-February.

If the state board does not decide the issue in January, James Crawley, RTD’s top Metro Rail engineer, said there could be construction delays. But he insisted they would be of short duration and not affect the expected 1992 opening date of the first 4.4-mile leg of the subway.

If treatment is required, he said, the added cost would come out of a Metro Rail contingency fund for unexpected expenses.

“We are going to do everything we can to prevent a public nuisance,” he said.

Also on Friday, it was learned that owners of the Broadway Plaza this week filed a motion to join a lawsuit challenging a downtown Metro Rail property tax. The move came after the owners, Plaza Development Associates, received an increase on their recent tax bill of more than $650,000 because of the subway. Downtown property owners are being charged for a new tax to help pay $130 million toward the $1.25-billion cost of building the first subway section.

The suit, which has not been set for trial, was filed earlier this year by the railroad companies that own Union Station. It challenges the legal basis for the tax and the method by which individual levies were applied to businesses near proposed Metro Rail stations on the assumption that their land values would improve.

The “Metrotax,” as some are calling it, has caused tax bill increases of 500% or more for some property owners and triggered outcries from many small business and property owners.

13 Tax Appeals Filed

By Friday, RTD had received about 200 calls from concerned property owners, and 13 appeals of the taxes had been filed. A group of about two dozen irate property owners gathered Friday afternoon to plot strategy for fighting the tax. The discussion focused on possible legal action.

One of the organizers, Sam Rubenfeld, said he had contacted former City Atty. Burt Pines, now in private practice in Century City, about taking on the case.

Some property owners griped about a minimum $1,200 fee required to appeal the tax to the RTD board.

One particularly irate property owner, Jack Lumer, said: “We’re in the parking lot business, I don’t need a subway. I’m digging my own grave (by paying this tax).”