Brockovich Joins Foes of Ahmanson

Adding more star power to opposition forces against the Ahmanson Ranch project, environmental heroine Erin Brockovich formally joined the celebrity campaign Monday against the $2-billion housing development.

The environmental crusader and her employer, attorney and Thousand Oaks Mayor Ed Masry, called for a new environmental impact report for the 3,050-home development that would be built in the Simi Hills in eastern Ventura County.

Brockovich has long opposed the project, but Monday was her first appearance on behalf of Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch, which counts movie director Rob Reiner and actor Martin Sheen among its spokesmen.

The coalition hopes the names of Brockovich and Masry will give a strong boost to their campaign against developer Washington Mutual. Brockovich works as an investigator for Masry’s law firm.

Brockovich and Masry’s investigation of Pacific Gas & Electric’s chemical ground-water contamination in Hinkley, Calif., led to a $333-million settlement six years ago and inspired a movie starring Julia Roberts as Brockovich.

Although there is no evidence of similar contamination at Ahmanson, Brockovich argued that more testing is needed, given the land’s proximity to a former nuclear research facility at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Lab. “Any parent who goes in there may be buying blindly,” she said.

Ahmanson spokesman Tim McGarry reacted angrily to Brockovich’s comments, calling them “a thoroughly contrived attempt to garner additional publicity for the opposition’s cause.”

“There is no reason to expect ground-water contamination since Ahmanson and Rocketdyne are fed by two separate aquifers that have no geological connection,” he said.

Masry and Brockovich also urged retiring Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo to call for a new traffic study on the Ahmanson Ranch project or to immediately resign and let his successor take over.

Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks was elected earlier this month to replace Schillo when his term expires at the end of the year. Parks is calling for a new environmental report and an expanded traffic study, saying the data supervisors used when they approved the development in 1992 are outdated.

Schillo said Monday that county attorneys and transportation officials have determined there is no need for a new traffic study because the scope of the development hasn’t changed. To call for a new study, Schillo said, would only leave the county open to a lawsuit by the developer.

“It’s going to be built,” Schillo said of the project.

Despite its approval a decade ago, the development has been stalled by more than a dozen lawsuits and by the discovery of a rare flower and frog on the property. Plans to protect the San Fernando Valley spineflowers and California red-legged frogs have been drawn up and will go before supervisors later this year.

If supervisors approve those plans, the project may go forward next year as scheduled.