Eastside Activists Urge Toxic Spill Crackdown

Local activists and politicians representing Eastside neighborhoods called Wednesday for tighter curbs on hazardous waste producers and additional toxic waste inspectors to avoid a repetition of chemical spills that recently threatened their communities.

Los Angeles County and city officials along with members of the United Neighborhoods Organization pressed for tougher action against hazardous waste violators at a “summit meeting” requested by UNO to discuss a recent fire and gas leak at a Commerce chemical plant.

About 28,000 Eastside residents had to be evacuated after separate chlorine spills on Sept. 3 and Sept. 4 resulted in toxic clouds floating over the community. More than 60 people were treated for minor injuries and at least two were hospitalized.

Supervisor Ed Edelman said Wednesday that the spills awakened community residents and local officials to the inadequacies in monitoring hazardous waste producers.

“What we found was that we have a tremendous fragmentation of departments that have jurisdiction over these areas,” Edelman said at a news conference after the 75-minute meeting. The approximately two dozen people present agreed that there should be better coordination between city and county agencies, he said.

At the same time, Edelman said, the Board of Supervisors should hire 28 more toxic waste inspectors. Only 17 inspectors are now available to monitor more than 18,000 businesses that handle, store or use hazardous substances, he said.

“It makes no sense to inspect restaurants--as important as that is to protect us against food poisoning--and neglect to inspect . . . those people that are using chemicals that are potentially hazardous to a large group of people,” he said.

Joining Edelman in pushing for stricter controls was Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina. She said an individual or an agency may be needed to oversee toxic waste regulation in the city and county.

For the most part, the participants at Wednesday’s news conference refrained from criticizing any official directly for the toxic waste problem, except for Gov. George Deukmejian.

Both Molina and Lou Negrete, representing UNO, said that Deukmejian has ignored requests that he put his considerable support behind efforts to clean up the toxic waste problem on the Eastside.

Negrete contended that Deukmejian had ignored UNO’s request to meet with the organization to discuss toxic waste problems and contended that if the chemical spills had happened in a more affluent area, the governor would have shown more concern.

“This is a critical problem,” Negrete said. “Is he waiting for dead bodies to pile up before he pays attention to these toxic explosions that are occurring in the Eastside community and are potential hazards for the rest of the county?”

Deukmejian’s press secretary, Kevin Brett, dismissed the allegations as “unsubstantiated political charges.”