THE VALLEY’S GALAXY OF GOO
California Department of Toxic Substances Control has no problem spelling out that real concerns do remain: “Chemicals that have been detected in the groundwater above or near levels established for the protection of public health (MCLs) can be considered critical constituents,” says Rodney Collins, the state’s project manager overseeing toxic-substance controls during Corporate Pointe’s rebuilding, in an e-mail to the Weekly.
The state toxics agency’s sister agency, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, uses a complex measure known as Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) to determine whether a hazard exists. In the case of Corporate Pointe, Collins notes, the groundwater contains forms of trichloroethene, dichloroethane, dichloroethene, trichlorofluoromethane, Freon, chromium, radium, and uranium — many of them near or exceeding their Maximum Contaminant Levels.
One groundwater well, now capped and unused, sits in the middle of where Trammell Crow will erect its new office buildings. That well, when tested, produced water with more than 3,300 times the Maximum Contaminant Level for dichloroethene — a highly flammable, colorless liquid with a pungent odor that in very high concentrations can cause sedation, inebriation, convulsions, spasms and unconsciousness.
The zone change approved several days ago by City Hall, to “light manufacturing,” weakens the standard for cleanup required of the developers, to a standard for dichloroethene four times lower than the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Flammable liquids in the groundwater are hardly the only problem. In 1990, uranium was found in the groundwater, and Klea has long worried that radiation is a threat. Pushed by Klea, the regional water board issued an October 11, 2008, letter to Raytheon, the aerospace company responsible since 1996 for cleaning up the groundwater. Raytheon was ordered to extensively rework what was found to be a “deficient technical report” to address problems involving uranium.
But again, Klea notes, because of the formal zone change now approved by the Villaraigosa administration, the cleanup target required of Raytheon for getting rid of uranium-238, which has a half-life of 4.46 billion years, will be relaxed — by more than 32,378 times.
Moreover, state toxic officials have already agreed with lowered standards for cleanup of the site. Collins wrote to Los Angeles City Planner Thomas Glick in February that the health-risk analysis for Corporate Pointe can reflect “commercial industrial uses.” And Corporate Pointe’s developers insisted recently on their Web site that they have submitted a “voluminous” amount of environmental material to state officials to support the project’s safety.
Klea plans to take her fight to the Los Angeles City Council. “It is a total bedroom community on three sides, with no buffer zone,” she says. “Our regulatory agencies don’t always protect the public.”
