The Belmont Money Pit

The Los Angeles Unified School District is about to throw more millions down a rat hole because of an environmental problem that could and should have been dealt with early at the controversial, half-built Belmont high school.

For starters, a new $750,000 environmental investigation is needed because the district’s top executives ignored a 1994 warning about inadequate tests for toxic hazards. Fixing the problems, including methane gas seepage and underground water contamination from old oil fields, could cost $10 million. Construction will be expensively delayed.

The $200-million Belmont project is already thought to be the costliest high school ever; it has every bell and whistle, plus associated retail stores and a plan for low-cost housing. It is also so fraught with problems that the committee overseeing Proposition BB bond funds refused to authorize school bond proceeds for construction and the state refused matching funds. Belmont is being built essentially out of local bonds floated by the district.

The environmental scandal documented by Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino and Doug Smith renews grave concerns about a lack of accountability in the mammoth school district. The LAUSD’s real estate manager, Robert Niccum, flagged the Belmont problem five years ago in a prophetic memo. He cautioned then-Supt. Sid Thompson and now-retired chief planner Dominic Shambra about an inadequate environmental assessment conducted in a rush by the seller so the district could buy the site at a bargain price. Some bargain. A copy of the memo was sent to then-Assistant Supt. Ruben Zacarias. To their credit, school board members David Tokofsky, Julie Korenstein and George Kiriyama questioned the environmental report and opposed the project. They were overruled.

The hastily prepared Belmont environmental report did not satisfy state requirements or follow the district’s normal competitive bid process.

Belmont isn’t the only school site to run into environmental problems, in part because so many schools are built on former industrial sites--to avoid displacing housing, according to school board members. The New Jefferson Middle School, a year after construction, remained closed to pupils because of soil contamination. Supt. Zacarias created a school safety team to tackle the Jefferson site and two suspect sites in South Gate. He added Belmont to the list long after the problem should have been discovered.

Everyone involved in this sorry tale has passed the buck. Everyone has an excuse and a short memory. But parents and other voters are clean out of forgiveness for LAUSD mistakes of this stupidity and magnitude. The district had better prove thoroughly and quickly that it can fix this mess and prevent others without wasting more millions of dollars.