Pierce to Debate Its Storage Role in ‘Chemical Sweep’

A proposal to use Pierce College as a collection point next month for outdated and unneeded classroom lab chemicals will be debated tonight at the Woodland Hills campus.

Students will sponsor the 7:30 p.m. discussion at the college’s Campus Center, 6201 Winnetka Ave., said forum organizer LeAnna B. McGuire.

Education officials have scheduled a five-day roundup, beginning April 25, of hazardous chemicals. Compounds from schools in the San Fernando Valley and nearby would be shipped to the college collection site, then to the Casmalia landfill, a private dump in Santa Barbara County.

Since the chemical collection plan was disclosed in October, it has stirred controversy at the West San Fernando Valley campus.

Opponents complain that it may be dangerous to even briefly store the chemicals at the college.

Sid Elman, a political science professor who is Pierce College campus chairman of the college district teachers union, has warned that a toxic spill during the collection “would create quite a bit of havoc--we have at least 20,000 people using this campus.”

Supporters of the “chemical sweep,” as state school officials call it, contend that the collection will be safe because it will be conducted by professional waste haulers under the supervision of the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

Officials say the toxic pickup may become an annual event. They noted that California schools have been under orders since 1984 to remove dangerous chemicals from classroom shelves. A list of 192 such chemicals has been distributed to school principals.

16 Collection Sites

A coordinated roundup of chemicals will save schools 50% to 80% of what individual toxic pickups would cost, said William Andrews, coordinator of the project for the state Department of Education.

Andrews said the state plans to schedule collections at 16 sites across the state. Other Los Angeles-area collection points have been proposed at Harbor College in Wilmington and Rio Hondo College in Burbank, he said.

William Norlund, Pierce College vice president for administration, said an earlier proposal to allow teachers and other school employees to transport the unwanted chemicals to the collection site has been scrapped.

Instead, Norlund said Thursday, technicians from International Technologies, a San Pedro-based hazardous-waste handling firm in charge of the collection, will pick up chemicals from the schools.

Norlund said Pierce College is not sponsoring tonight’s forum, although officials have arranged for a hazardous-materials specialist from the state Health Department to discuss the collection.

McGuire, a student at Pierce, said teachers and homeowners living near the campus are being invited to the debate.

She said Los Angeles Community College District Trustees are expected to vote next week on whether to approve use of Pierce College for the collection.

However, a spokeswoman for the college district said Thursday that next week’s board agenda has not yet been determined.