Planners Vote to Add Hurdles for BKK Waste Plant

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved an ordinance Thursday that would require hazardous waste storage and treatment facilities--including the proposed BKK Corp. plant in Wilmington--to go through a special approval and review process even when the facilities meet city zoning requirements.

BKK officials, who opposed the ordinance, said they will take their case to the City Council and its Planning and Environment Committee, both of which must approve the ordinance.

By a 3-0 vote, with two members absent, the commission rejected a BKK request that the company’s proposed treatment plant in east Wilmington near Long Beach be exempted from the ordinance. The company had argued that the project, while not yet under construction, has already undergone thorough review by the Los Angeles City Council and Wilmington residents.

“It is disappointing, but we will just continue to pursue it,” said Ken Kazarian, president of the Torrance-based company.

In approving the ordinance, Commissioner Sam Botwin suggested that BKK give up on the Wilmington facility, which has been bitterly opposed in the harbor-front community and to a lesser degree in Long Beach.

Botwin told the BKK attorneys that the city is developing plans to upgrade residential and commercial areas in the predominantly industrial community and that BKK might be better served if it moved the proposed facility elsewhere.

“There is another little city next to Wilmington called Carson that is in the midst of an industrial area, more so than Wilmington,” Botwin said. “I would suggest Carson. . . . Carson is divided between an industrial area, commercial and residential. It is a beautiful city. They have separated it.”

When another commissioner suggested that Carson may not look favorably upon Botwin’s remarks, Botwin, a resident of San Pedro, retorted: “They get a lot of my tax money there because we do a lot of shopping there.”

Kazarian said his company has no plans to move the facility to Carson.

“Apparently the commissioner has never gone down to where the site is,” Kazarian said in an interview. “It is not a distinctly residential area by any means. It is surrounded by junkyards, chemical facilities and refineries.”

The city currently allows hazardous waste facilities in areas zoned for heavy industry--the M2 and M3 zones--without a conditional-use permit. The ordinance approved by the commission would require the facilities to obtain the permit from the city and undergo a public review process. Existing facilities would not be affected.

The BKK facility has already received city approvals, but the company has not yet applied for a building permit or the numerous other permits it will need before it can begin construction. As a result, city officials said, it would fall under the provisions of the new ordinance.

The Los Angeles City Council, despite strong opposition from local residents, approved an environmental impact report and a street vacation for the BKK project in 1984. One month later, the Harbor Coalition Against Toxic Waste, a group of Wilmington residents opposed to the project, sued BKK and the city, claiming that the environmental report was inadequate. The group lost its case in August, 1986, when the California Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal of a lower court decision in favor of BKK and the city.

Last April, harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who has opposed the facility, proposed the ordinance, saying the city needs more power to regulate hazardous facilities within its boundaries. The California Department of Health Services controls permits for hazardous waste facilities throughout the state. BKK has not yet obtained state approval for the plant.

BKK has argued since then that it should be exempted from the ordinance, but Flores has pushed to exclude any provisions that would give the company a way out. Flores has said she would like a chance to place conditions on the facility’s operations, regulating such things as hours of operation and truck routes.

“The timing of the (ordinance) makes it appear that (it) is designed primarily to allow local opposition yet another opportunity to derail the project,” BKK said in a letter to the Planning Commission. “While the application of the conditional use permit process to new hazardous waste management projects may be desirable, it would be unfair and unnecessary to impose such a process on the (BKK) project, which has already been subject to intense public, administrative and judicial scrutiny.”

Opponents Will Fight

Jo Ann Wysocki, vice president of the Wilmington Home Owners and a founder of the group that sued BKK and the city, said both organizations will fight any effort by BKK to sidestep the ordinance.

“They have had plenty of time to apply for their building permit, and they have not,” Wysocki said. “There is no reason they should be exempt.”

Diane Sallee, Flores’ deputy who handles hazardous waste issues, said Flores will continue to oppose the exemption when the ordinance goes to the City Council for approval.