Belmont’s Possible Tie to Fumes Probed

Environmental safety experts conducting tests at the Belmont Learning Complex near downtown Los Angeles said Saturday that they will meet with state and local officials to determine whether construction at the site led to the presence of a potentially lethal gas near at least one home.

Safety team members said they were notified that tests taken late last week detected concentrations of hydrogen sulfide outside a house near Toluca Street and Edgeware Road, just up the slope from the $200-million high school project.

The tests were conducted by the county Fire Department, the state Division of Oil and Gas and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. Team members said those agencies are trying to determine if the fumes came from an old oil well, general seepage from the ground, or grading at Belmont, where--newly released documents show--crews excavated and stockpiled large amounts of oil-tainted soil.

“We’re probably going to be meeting with them early this week to see what they found and what they plan next,” said Angelo Bellomo, the safety team’s environmental consultant.

If there is a Belmont link, the Los Angeles Unified School District would have to expand its environmental review of the project, a district spokesman said.

The district has already halted foundation work once for testing, after the discovery of methane and the migration of other hazardous materials at the site raised new environmental concerns. In all, there have been 120 soil samples taken, and Bellomo said the first analyses from the borings should be completed by Friday.

A natural byproduct of petroleum that degrades in the ground, hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs and, in low concentrations, can cause headaches and nausea. In high concentrations--300 parts per million or more--it can be lethal.