Panel Begins Hearings on Belmont Site Safety

The first round of witnesses called by the commission that will weigh the fate of the environmentally plagued Belmont Learning Complex asserted unequivocally Thursday that the half-completed high school can be made safe for students and faculty.

“We do believe there is a solution at this site,” said Tom Watson, an environmental expert with the firm that is investigating the hazards of explosive gas and toxic chemicals at the site. “It will be a safe solution and a cost-effective one.”

A member of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s environmental safety team, which has sharply criticized the district’s handling of the $200-million project, went even further.

“The safety team strongly believes that every effort should be made to develop a solution which is protective of health and which allows the school to proceed to completion,” said Angelo Bellomo, the team’s environmental consultant.

The seven-member commission was appointed by the Los Angeles Board of Education to recommend whether Belmont should be completed or abandoned. It has an Oct. 20 deadline to present its report.

The commission got off to a slow start Thursday, getting through only three presentations. The members asked numerous questions, often seeking to fill in basic pieces of knowledge about environmental issues affecting Belmont, being built on an abandoned oil field west of downtown.

Executive Director Ira Reiner said he expected the questioning to become more challenging as the panel members gather more information.

Opening 5 1/2 hours of testimony was John Sepich, an engineer who designed a collection system of underground pipes to protect school buildings from the accumulation of explosive methane gas.

Sepich rebutted critics who have said his design is inadequate because it would require methane to build up below the buildings before being vented.

He cited several heavily developed sites in Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Central Library, where his system is working effectively under more adverse environmental conditions than Belmont’s.

He warned the commission that a decision to require a more costly system would set a precedent with horrendous consequences.

“We’re getting into a situation here where this site is being treated totally differently than any other site, and whatever this commission decides will become the new standard,” Sepich said. “If it is inadequate, it is inadequate everywhere.”

But Commissioner Charles Calderon, a former state assemblyman, countered that argument.

“I don’t buy the argument,” he said. “If anything, we will set a standard for how the district looks at its sites.”

The panel will meet three times a week: Mondays and Thursdays from 2 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m., although it will take the next two Saturdays off.