Officials of Vernon’s Planned Hazardous Waste Plant to Meet Activists

At a time when Latino activists are becoming increasingly vocal about unwanted projects in their barrios, officials of a planned hazardous waste treatment plant in Vernon agreed Monday to meet with members of the United Neighborhoods Organization after several UNO leaders reiterated their opposition to it.

The meeting--set for next Monday night at a church in Huntington Park--was announced under drizzling skies after 50 UNO members held a prayer vigil at the four-acre project site on Slauson Avenue to dramatize their reservations about the $8-million plant that would treat used water-based chemicals.

“They said there will be no danger, but we remain unconvinced that this will be a safe plant,” said UNO senior leader Lou Negrete after emerging from a 40-minute meeting with company officials.

UNO and other community groups have opposed the plant proposed by Chem-Clear Inc., a subsidiary of Union Pacific Corp., because of its proximity to densely populated areas and schools in nearby Huntington Park. The plant would be located just inside the largely industrial town of Vernon but Huntington Park High School is about 1,000 feet from the project site.

Also, they oppose the project because of potential dangers connected with the plant’s goal of treating up to 140,000 gallons of water-based industrial waste each day. Activists point out that Vernon city officials did not require an environmental impact report for the plant.

Martin L. Smith, Chem-Clear’s regional general manager, said the project has already been scaled back 20% due to previous objections raised by community groups. Among the changes, he said, were elimination of the treatment of cyanide acid and the shredding of toxic-filled drums at the plant.

Also, the company revised proposed truck routes away from Huntington Park High, Smith said.

Although an environmental impact report was not required by the city of Vernon, Smith said a health-risk assessment conducted by the company, which he said addressed many of the same topics of an impact report, concluded that the project posed no significant danger to the area.

“We are committed to this project at this site,” Smith said. “We’ll lose five years if we have to do an EIR. Moving the project to another site is unacceptable to us.”

Chem-Clear first proposed the plant in 1986 and has received the necessary permits to build from local, state and federal agencies, including the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The company had planned to begin construction within a year, but the continued protests, including those from UNO, have tied up those permits.

Among the public agencies that have opposed the plant are the Huntington Park City Council and the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

The UNO action resulting in a meeting next Monday night at St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church comes in the wake of two recent victories that Latino community activists have claimed against unwanted projects.

An Orange County company in May abandoned plans for a controversial hazardous waste incinerator, also slated for Vernon, after Eastside community groups like the Mothers of EastA. opposed the plant, contending that plant emissions would endanger the nearby neighborhoods.

The fight over the plant had gone on for six years before Security Environmental Studies of Garden Grove abandoned plans.

And the leaders of the Mothers of East L. A. were overjoyed last month when funds for the proposed 1,450-bed state prison near downtown Los Angeles were deleted during the budget negotiations. Although the funds for the prison could be reinstated later, Latino activists involved in the six-year prison fight were nevertheless claiming victory.

UNO senior leader Negrete said the current fight is not likely to be affected by the successes against the incinerator and the state prison.