Toxic Wastes Pollute South Gate School Site

The South Gate school site that sparked this week’s battle over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District is far more contaminated than the Belmont Learning Complex, records show.

Belmont, being constructed on a former oil field west of downtown, is primarily affected by explosive methane and toxic hydrogen sulfide, but it has been found relatively free of industrial wastes.

The earth at the South Gate site is full of them.

At Belmont, tests have established that the hazards are naturally caused by underground oil and cannot be eliminated. The treatment is to place impermeable barriers and gas venting systems under buildings. The contamination at South Gate can be cleaned up, but at a cost that is still unknown.

Revelations last week about problems at the future elementary and high school became the last straw in the school board’s decision to appoint a chief executive to oversee all district operations.

Barry Groveman, attorney for the district’s environmental safety team, said the district’s headlong effort to move the project forward despite toxic hazards was the key reason he pushed the board to bring in former board member Howard Miller as chief executive.

The land selected by the district real estate branch is a collection of 38 former industrial sites, including an herbicide manufacturer, a chrome-plating plant, several foundries, a paper recycling center, auto service shops and a business referred to in state documents as a baking pan stripper.

When the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control asked for an investigation of possible contamination last year, it found that the 40-acre property was within a mile radius of five inactive landfills, one active landfill and an active rubbish transfer station.

The soil contained elevated levels of methane, volatile organic compounds such as TCA and PCE, chromium, chlordane, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, lead and benzene.

Despite all this, the agency concluded that not enough was known about the property at Tweedy Boulevard and Adella Avenue. About $39 million has already been spent acquiring the site.

“The site has not been adequately characterized and the impact to human health and the environment may have been underestimated,” a review of existing studies concluded.

Although many of the individual lots had been studied, the district had failed to examine the whole property, the state agency said, leaving open the question of the cumulative risk of all sources of pollution.

Furthermore, three of the properties had never been investigated, it said.

In a subsequent investigation early this year, district consultant Environmental Strategies Corp. painted an even darker picture.

It said the proposed campus would be adjacent to other industrial properties that “could be the source of chemical exposure to students and faculty and / or be perceived as a health and safety risk.”

The state has required the district to conduct a remedial investigation to determine what must be done to eliminate the contamination.

Ron Baker, spokesman for the department, said the district has yet to select a consultant to perform that work.

Angelo Bellomo, the environmental consultant on the district’s safety team, said the studies will delay the start of construction by at least two years and maybe as much as four.

In addition, some conditions could preclude the construction of the schools. Among these is a nearby Chevron pipeline that could be within 10 yards of the property.

State law prohibits construction of schools over hydrocarbon pipelines.

Nonetheless, Groveman said, the district real estate branch has continued to pursue the project.

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A Questionable School Site

40 acres of factories in South Gate are being purchased by the Los Angeles Unified School District for a future elementary school and senior high school.

Types of industries on site:

chemical manufacturing

chrome plating foundries

paper recycling

auto service

Some types of chemicals used by the businesses:

Methane

chromium

chlordane

mercury

lead

benzene

Estimated costs:

$39 million so far

$94 million budgeted

Remediation unknown