Toxics Test at Eastside Prison Site Planned

The state Department of Corrections announced Friday that it will undertake a full study of possible soil contamination on a 20-acre parcel east of downtown Los Angeles before moving to purchase the site for a state prison.

The announcement came just hours after Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), an outspoken critic of the Eastside prison proposal, called on state officials to list the property, currently owned by Santa Fe Railroad, on a Superfund list of California’s most polluted sites.

Torres issued his request based on information developed by his staff that certain potentially hazardous substances may be found on the property at higher than normal levels. In an interview, Torres said he has no idea whether the contamination is at a level that would be harmful, but he insisted that the situation justifies a full study.

“We want to find out what the cost of (cleaning the site) will be,” Torres said. “If we buy the property, we may have no recourse against Santa Fe.”

But a spokesman for the state Department of Health Services said the contaminants cited by Torres were actually found on adjacent property and that tests on the proposed prison site indicated that pollution had not spread to neighboring parcels.

“We have no evidence whatsoever that the proposed prison site is eligible for the Superfund,” said Kassy Edington, chief spokeswoman for Kenneth Kizer, Health Services director.

Bob Gore, a Corrections Department spokesman, said the department’s decision to order full soil tests on the site had nothing to do with Torres’ request but instead was triggered by a consultant’s report indicating that further study is necessary.

“This was purely coincidental,” Gore said of the timing of the department’s announcement. “We’re not going to make any offer on the property until the soil study is complete.”

A preliminary soil and groundwater study by Lockwood-Singh & Associates, a private consulting firm on contract to the Department of Corrections, determined that there was some contamination on the prison site, probably from a leaking underground gasoline tank. The report recommended that additional drilling and testing be done at the site but concluded that there was no indication of “deep-soil contamination.”

Gore said the problem was not serious and could be remedied by “digging up the dirt and hauling it away.”

The state is at a critical juncture in its plan to build Los Angeles County’s first state prisons, one at the Eastside location and a second near Lancaster. The Legislature, after years of political wrangling, agreed to proceed with the two prisons despite opposition from Torres and other Eastside politicians and community activists.

Torres charged that the decision-making process surrounding the prison had become “so politicized,” that he can no longer believe that corrections officials will do the necessary studies.

“I just don’t trust their word,” Torres said.

Patrick Kenady, a Corrections Department assistant director, fired back, charging that “it’s a little hard to put much stock in Sen. Torres’ allegations.”

“He seems to have lost his objectivity, and in his present state of mind, he would probably find toxics at the fountain of Lourdes,” he said.

The compromise prison legislation signed by Gov. George Deukmejian allows the state to purchase the Eastside prison site before completion of a full environmental impact report. Kenady said Torres’ real aim is to delay the prison, adding that the question of toxic contamination should be addressed in a “more rational form” through the formal environmental study.