College, Plant May Be Bad Chemistry

The Los Angeles Community College District plans to build a campus in South Gate next to one of Southern California’s largest chemical plants despite safety concerns expressed by critics.

The campus, with dorms and a children’s center, would be next to a rail yard, about a hundred feet from LA Chemical. Because the plant handles a variety of highly toxic substances, it is on the Department of Homeland Security list of potential terrorist targets.

District officials, who have struggled to find available land in the densely populated Southeast Los Angeles area, said they didn’t think the plant would be a risk to students or faculty.

An environmental impact report on the property is being prepared, and the district hopes to break ground in 2006.

But critics say it’s foolish to build a campus in the heart of a heavily industrial area.

About 400 rail cars, carrying products from such companies as Dow Chemical and Occidental Petroleum, deliver roughly 40,000 tons of explosive, corrosive and toxic chemicals to the plant every month, said David Miller, LA Chemical’s chairman.

In 1999, the area was evacuated after fumes from a chlorine derivative escaped from a rail car next to what is now the district’s property. A few weeks ago, a train car derailed between the chemical plant and the campus site.

Miller said he didn’t want to have to worry about thousands of students next door.

“If the community college was here today, and I said, ‘I want to build a chemical plant here,’ everybody would say, ‘Are you crazy, Miller?’ ” he commented. “This makes as much sense as putting a school next to the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Our guys can make a mistake, a train could derail, or somebody can target us because there’s a school nearby.”

Some in South Gate believe that such worries are valid, while others think the company is overreacting.

Councilman Bill DeWitt said he helped evacuate students from Tweedy Elementary School in 1986 when a chlorine leak at what was then a Purex Corp. plant spread the gas into nearby neighborhoods. More than 50 children, teachers and others were sent to hospitals.

“All it takes is one incident,” DeWitt said. “Ideally, you’re like Irvine, where you have residential, followed by a greenbelt, then commercial, then a greenbelt, then industrial.”

But South Gate and surrounding cities don’t have that luxury. The band of communities southeast of downtown Los Angeles were developed to provide homes for workers in the factories and plants that dot and surround the area. There is little undeveloped land, and there has been much debate about how what remains should be used.

The college district and Los Angeles Unified School District, buoyed by recently approved bond measures, have purchased property for new campuses. South Gate, however, would like more retail development, because it brings in tax revenues to fund municipal services.

The city has decided not to oppose the college. Instead, it has struck a deal that would allow some retail businesses on the property. South Gate had hoped to see the entire parcel put to such use.

“Our hands are tied. They’ve got eminent domain,” said Councilman Henry Gonzalez. “From our standpoint, we can’t stop this, so let’s get what we can.”

City and college district officials praise LA Chemical’s safety record. The South Coast Air Quality Management District reports only two violations -- in 2000 and 2002, both minor.

“They’re good corporate citizens, they pay good wages, and they run a clean operation,” Councilman DeWitt said.

But Miller and other owners of nearby industrial properties said the risks were too great to build the campus. “Accidents happen,” he said. “Humans are not infallible.”

The plant is in the center of an old industrial district near Atlantic Avenue and Firestone Boulevard. The area is crisscrossed with rail tracks and security fences and dotted with plants such as a U.S. Gypsum Co. factory and a facility that makes silicates and other materials for products such as detergents.

Traffic from the college would increase chances of accidents involving chemical tankers and vehicles bearing other industrial freight, Miller said. The rail yard, with its possibility of derailments, is another concern.

LA Chemical distributes, mixes and stores chemicals used for agricultural, automotive, mining, pharmaceutical and other purposes. Established in 1914, the company has been in South Gate since the 1920s.

Miller said his plant’s chemicals were hazardous and potentially deadly if released in high enough concentrations. He also worries that the site would draw protesters from the campus.

“One day, people at the college are going to say, ‘A chemical plant is not a good neighbor. Get out of Dodge,’ ” he said. “What do I tell my 150 employees?”

College officials say they see no danger, just opportunities.

“I think this will be a potential spur to economic development that will revitalize the city of South Gate,” said Larry Eisenberg, the college district’s executive director for facilities planning and development. “This will change the look and feel of the community.”

He said finding a suitable site in South Gate for a campus that could grow to serve 12,000 students was difficult. Building near the chemical plant was not the first choice, he added.

At one point, South Gate officials tried to steer the district to property on Tweedy Boulevard belonging to L.A. Unified. But talks went nowhere, partly because the school district asked for $60 million, Eisenberg said.

The college district had $50 million to spend on the campus, from the $980-million Proposition AA that voters passed two years ago.

Last year, the district approached the owners of the 28 acres near LA Chemical. The property was owned by Ameron International, which makes steel and concrete pipes for water-distribution systems.

In August, the district’s board of trustees authorized purchase of the land for $24 million from Overton Moore Properties.

The acquisition angered South Gate leaders.

“We were shocked,” said City Manager Gary Milliman. “We were actively dealing with a shopping center developer on that site.”

Eventually the two sides agreed to include retail outlets.

The debate is sparking interest outside South Gate because some see the project as a troubling encroachment on industrial land.

“If you’ve got an opportunity to locate something away from a known risk, why would you say, ‘Damn the torpedoes, I’m going there anyway?’ ” asked Jim Kolstad, president of the National Assn. of Chemical Distributors in Arlington, Va. “It’s hard to think of an idea with more lunacy than this one.”