Local News in Brief : Port Relocation Plan Hit

At an emotionally charged public hearing Wednesday, residents, businessmen and an aide to Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, urged the Port of Los Angeles to change its plans for relocating hazardous facilities away from populated areas in San Pedro and Wilmington.

At issue is the fate of two facilities: the Wilmington Liquid Bulk Terminals--at the foot of Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington, and the Unocal tank farm on 22nd Street in San Pedro.

Flores, through aide Ann D’Amato, asked the port to move the Wilmington terminals, which could stand in the way of redevelopment in that community, and to consider an alternate relocation site for the Unocal facility. Others echoed her sentiments.

The plan, which is a draft, does not call for moving the Wilmington terminals. Although it does call for relocating the Unocal facility, the councilwoman and others worry the new site--a landfill that has not yet been built--could take years to get ready. The tank farm is near a heavily populated area in San Pedro.

Beatrice Atwood Hunt of San Pedro told the commissioners: “We who live (near) the Unocal tank farm would like to see that the Harbor Department sincerely means that safety is the No. 1 priority.”

A Wilmington activist, Gertrude Schwab, said: “This is our only chance in Wilmington. If you take that away from us, you leave us no hope for the future.”