Whale Center Still Shut in Soil Cleanup Fight

A month before whale-watching season begins, one of the nation’s best spots for viewing the migration of the giant mammals remains closed in Rancho Palos Verdes because of government infighting over cleaning up toxic soil at the site.

The Point Vicente Interpretive Center has been closed since August 1999--tied up in red tape since officials discovered high concentrations of lead, believed to be from World War II-era bullets, in the dirt.

The center, which draws more than 60,000 people a year, was supposed to reopen in time for the Dec. 1 start of whale-watching season. But its historical exhibits, gray whale displays and gift shop will remain locked behind a chain-link fence for at least another 18 months because of a disagreement over who should foot the $2-million environmental cleanup bill.

“This year I’m really sad,” said Holly Starr, the center’s recreation supervisor. “It’s hard to see the interpretive center without any people in there. I just can’t fathom the reopening being that far away.”

Point Vicente is a mecca for whale watchers. The peninsula juts into the migratory path of thousands of whales that make their annual trek between the Antarctic and the warm waters off Baja. Mother whales, which reach the size of a small school bus, will bring newborn calves to frolic in the calmer waters near the cliffs and rest in the kelp beds, say enthusiasts.

The center’s closing has forced whale watchers to scramble for other vantage points along the coast and has created a hardship for volunteers from the American Cetacean Society, which takes an annual whale census. It also has stirred emotions among the center’s longtime visitors and employees.

Starr, for instance, can still recite passages from an essay she wrote when she was 12 about saving the whales. It took her 10 years to get her job at the center, she added, and its shutdown and subsequent limbo have left her stunned.

“ ‘Crushed’ is a good word,” said Starr, who continues to visit the center each day out of habit--and longing.

The interpretive center--one of only two about whales in the state--is owned and operated by the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, which built it in 1984 on land leased from the county for $10 a year. A lighthouse built in the 1920s stands next to the center.

The center became so popular that city officials came up with a $2.5-million plan in 1992 to expand it by 7,000 square feet--three times its original size. A docent training center and a library were planned in the extra space.

In 1997, the city received the necessary funds through county park bonds and pushed ahead with the expansion. They held a groundbreaking in July 1999, prompting workers to start digging in earnest and carting off soil by the truckloads.

Some of the dirt went to Chandler’s Landfill in Rolling Hills, and some went as fill for an industrial project in San Pedro that needed clean dirt.

On a whim, the San Pedro project manager decided to test the dirt. The result: a handful of bullets--and lead contamination.

“At first there was a sense of disbelief when I was told they found lead contaminating the soil,” said Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Les Evans. “It just kept getting worse and worse, and we all just got sicker and sicker [about the situation]. It’s been awful.”

Evans said a subsequent investigation suggested the contamination was caused by a World War II rifle range the Army operated on the property. Lead shavings probably scraped off the bullets upon hitting the dirt, experts said, and after decades, started to break down.

The metal can cause brain damage in children and, with the large number of school tours at Point Vicente, officials didn’t want to take any chances. So they spent more than $800,000 to retrieve and dispose of the lead-tainted dirt at a hazardous waste landfill north of Bakersfield.

But they also determined that it would take another $2 million to clean up the lead remaining in the dirt.

The city filed a claim with both the county and federal governments for an unspecified amount to help with the hefty cleanup bill. That step opens the door to filing a lawsuit later if the matter doesn’t get resolved amicably.

“We really believe it’s the federal rifle range that caused the problem, and it’s on county property,” Evans said. “We’re all in this together.”

Evans said the county should bear some responsibility as the center’s landlord, but county officials say their lease absolves them from any liability for environmental ills. They, in turn, hope the federal government will pay for the cleanup and have lobbied the Army Corps of Engineers to investigate whether the military is responsible for the contamination.

A Corps spokesman, Herb Nesmith, said the agency has looked into the matter and prepared a report for its division headquarters in San Francisco, but he declined to disclose the findings. He added, however, that the agency expects to learn within the next two months whether the site is eligible for funding under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, which pays to clean up former military sites that have been polluted.

Getting any federal money, however, could take a lifetime, said Evans, the Rancho Palos Verdes city manager. Congress must approve any allocation, and cleaning up the interpretive center probably would be a low priority on the government’s list of toxic sites in need of attention, he said.

On the other hand, if the city goes ahead and pays the cost before there is any federal approval, it forfeits any chance at being reimbursed by the U.S. government, Evans and other city officials say.

At the very least, the city hopes the county will split the cleanup bill.

“We’re certainly hopeful,” said Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Lee Byrd.

Officials continue to be optimistic but can’t offer any concrete answers on when the center might reopen. Even if they started today, getting rid of the lead and finishing the expansion will take a year and a half.

In the meantime, American Cetacean Society volunteers are trying to find another place to conduct their annual Gray Whale Census Project, said project director Alisa Schulman-Janiger. “The closure has compromised the census,” she said.

She said that the group used Point Vicente for 15 years and that it was the perfect location because census takers could see the whales both coming and going from Mexico. They must record their readings at the same location for accuracy. Last year, the cetacean society used the former Marineland site, but society members aren’t sure whether they can return.

“Point Vicente is very unique,” Schulman-Janiger said. “I don’t think there is another spot like it. Sometimes the whales get so close you hear them before you see them.”