Residents Claim Review of School Site Inadequate

A group of Santa Clarita residents contends that a new law passed after the Belmont High School debacle has failed to help them halt the purchase of land for a new school, despite environmental problems.

The law requires the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to check proposed school sites for contamination before the land can be purchased.

The law was passed after the Los Angeles Unified School District was forced to abandon construction of the $200-million Belmont Learning Center in downtown Los Angeles because of environmental problems.

But one group of residents said the state has cleared the proposed Golden Valley High School site in Santa Clarita without an adequate review. The group said state officials failed to consider conditions and activities on surrounding properties that could affect the health of children.

Since the law went into effect Jan. 1, the state has completed 17 studies of Southern California school sites, requiring environmental remediation on three, further testing on six and “no further action” on eight--including the 50-acre Golden Valley property near Soledad Canyon Road east of San Fernando Road.

The controversy in Santa Clarita marks the first time that residents have complained about the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s interpretation of the new law, said Hamid Saebfar, chief of the agency’s School Property, Evaluation and Cleanup Division.

Parents said the environmental hazards are severe enough to warrant abandoning the project. At least one corporate neighbor has agreed.

Immediately west is the former home of Whittaker-Bermite Inc., a manufacturer of munitions and military flares. State officials are investigating soil and ground-water contamination at that site and have found volatile compounds like trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, chromium 6 and perchlorate.

A major cleanup, including removal of soils and installation of vapor-extraction systems, could start this year, officials of the state department said.

A couple of hundred yards north of the school site is the 640-acre Saugus Testing Facility of National Testing Systems. The firm tests hazardous systems and components for the telecommunications and aerospace industries, sometimes blowing up items as part of stress tests.

To the south is a 700-acre oil field run by Berry Petroleum. The company also owns the rights to drill for oil under the school property.

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And there is more. Residents complained that the site is near an earthquake fault, between high-tension power lines, in a designated landslide area and contains high-pressure gas lines.

“Why would you pick a spot in the middle of this mess and say this is wonderful for a school facility?” said Cam Noltemeyer, a member of a residents group fighting the school.

Bob Snyder, a lawyer for National Testing Systems, said the company believes the site is wrong not just because of the activities at NTS, but because it lies on an earthquake fault and is in a high-risk landslide area.

“I can’t imagine putting a school on that particular location,” Snyder said.

Throughout the investigative process, residents and environmentalists say the William S. Hart Union High School District attempted to minimize the environmental impacts.

“They proved they weren’t interested in having this law work,” Noltemeyer said. “They were interested in circumventing the law.”

Hart Supt. Robert Lee flatly denied that the district has tried to influence the process. Tests by environmental consultants hired by the district showed that soil and ground water had not been significantly contaminated.

Lee noted that the school site is at the top of a hill, well above its neighbors, making it unlikely that contaminants would migrate to the school property.

No agency is more familiar with the Whittaker-Bermite site because the Department of Toxic Substances Control has been leading the cleanup investigation, Lee said.

The explosions at NTS might seem scary, but he noted that the company must get permission from county fire officials before any tests are conducted.

As for oil drilling, Lee said all that activity will be taking place 7,000 to 10,000 feet underground and will have no impact on aboveground activities around the school.

“We don’t want to be building on a piece of property that’s not safe,” he said.

Lee noted that the Golden Valley project must be approved by the state Department of Education.

In addition, the purchase may be delayed because last week voters in Santa Clarita rejected a $52-million school construction bond.

The site is now owned by the Santa Clarita Valley Facilities Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

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Although the tests were conducted by consultants hired by the district, the state told them what environmental issues to address. Also, state officials visited the site during testing and reviewed the findings of the consultants, Saebfar said.

The consultants did not test outside the school site. That only would have been necessary if investigators had found contamination or other items that had gravitated to the site from surrounding properties, Saebfar said.

Residents are wary of future cleanup at the Whittaker-Bermite site, fearing the effects of dust from the soil removal operation and emissions from vapor-extraction systems.

But Saebfar said the state ensures that all such cleanups are safe for surrounding communities.

“We have many cleanup sites worse that Whittaker-Bermite in residential neighborhoods right next to homes,” Saebfar said.

Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), an author of the new law, said it may be necessary to amend it to enable the state to consider surrounding uses when evaluating the environmental safety of a proposed school site.

“The law specifically deals with assessment of a site,” Wildman said. “There may have been an oversight in the law we need to correct.”