Tests for Poisons May Delay Toys for Needy

About 100,000 Christmas toys destined for needy children remained locked inside an El Toro warehouse Thursday while the Navy conducted tests to determine whether they are radioactive or sprinkled with asbestos.

The gifts, left over from last year’s toy drives by a coalition of community groups, were supposed to be given to underprivileged children this holiday season.

But the possible contamination could prevent their distribution in time for Christmas, officials said. That has led to finger pointing by officials from Orange County, which owns the closed El Toro Marine base; the Navy, which gave the post to the county; and toy drive groups over who is the “Grinch” in the controversy.

To further complicate matters, Navy officials say the groups that collected the toys, including the Marines who run Toys for Tots, are illegally occupying the padlocked warehouse because they were ordered to vacate it by Aug. 31. The Navy gave them the notice to vacate June 28.

However, Orange County and Navy officials did not learn about the possible contamination until Aug. 29, when Rob Richardson, the county’s El Toro program director, said he read a Navy environmental report about the base. Richardson said Building 360, where the toys are stored, was identified in the report as possibly contaminated.

This means that had the community groups, including St. Vincent de Paul, removed the toys in June, they could have been scattered in storage areas throughout the county before the Navy could determine if they were contaminated.

St. Vincent de Paul spokesman Scott Mather said preliminary testing of the building by a Navy subcontractor showed no contamination. However, Navy spokesman Lee Saunders refused to confirm that.

“We are still conducting tests that will be completed soon,” Saunders said.

Mather said the coalition of community groups will start the season’s toy drive Nov. 1, and they are anxious to remove the toys and find about 50,000 square feet of donated space to store them, along with about 200,000 new toys they expect to collect before Christmas.

“Right now, we’re in limbo. Nobody seems to know what’s going to happen with those toys,” Mather said. “But even if they tell us to go get them, what are we going to do with them? We don’t have any place to store them.”

Meanwhile, nobody is allowed in the warehouse, Richardson said.

Initially, the Navy wanted to conduct the tests early next year, he said. But Orange County officials pressured the military to do the testing earlier so the toys could be distributed in time for Christmas if uncontaminated, he said.

“Our mission right now is to make sure the Navy concludes the [testing] quickly so we can get some answers and get the toys out of the building,” said Richardson.

According to Navy officials, radiological equipment may have once been stored in the warehouse. But records are sketchy and there is no conclusive evidence that anything radioactive was ever stored in the building.

“The sensible thing to do right now is to do the proper testing and find out. Everybody is aware that those toys are going to be used by children,” Saunders said.