Easy to Please Simpleton Writes Editorial on Soil Contamination

Preface

There is a strong political component to what is happening now.  The Hymettus poisoning was a big scandal for the city.  It put into question whether the city will do proper cleanup of the Hall property, since it is the developer and will be overseeing itself with the county program.  Jerome Stocks will be mayor in 2012 and be up for re-election.  He wants to control the debate.  But he has to answer for the long delay, 3/4 of which was caused by the city.  Three years for the EIR and two years since approval for lack of money.  He has to answer for the lack of money to actually build the park.  And he has to answer for how the whole project went off the rails, when an honest and transparent approach to the public would have got the park built years ago.

Editorial

It happened on June 22, 2011, at a City Council meeting during a discussion of the reported neighborhood poisoning on North Hymettus. Several speakers had mentioned the soil contamination on the Hall property. Planning Director Patrick Murphy suddenly leapt to his microphone to speak. He said there was no significant contamination on the property, and Councilman Jerome Stocks quickly joined in to say how important it was to state that. It all looked like a carefully planned setup. What was the city up to?

LB NOTE: Stocks and Gaspar are prone to publicly ask staff to make statements they don't want to make themselves.

On the very first page of the Hazardous Materials section of the Final EIR (page 3.6-1) it says, “The EBS Phase I identified potential features of concern related to hazardous materials ….” and “The Phase I identified several constituents of concern associated with historical site land use including pesticides, petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, toxic metals, and hexavalent chromium.”

This certainly doesn’t sound like uncontaminated land.

What are those pesticides? DDE, DDT, Dieldrin, and Toxaphene “were found in exceedance of residential CHHSL and PRG levels,” (page 3.6-10). The report continues, “Toxaphene’s 95% upper confidence level … exceeded the published toxaphene CHHSLs and PRGs.”

It was going to be a difficult job to explain the high level of this dangerous carcinogen.

I have highlighted the word residential. This is the key to understanding how the city shaped the EIR to try to minimize the contamination. There are only two standards for measuring levels of contamination: residential and industrial.

The city created a “recreational” standard and used it “in the absence of established screening levels for a public use park,” (page 3.6-10).

The city has used statistical manipulation to dismiss the contamination. It’s like the often-told story of the man who drowned in a lake with an average depth of one foot. The game is revealed in the technical reports in the Draft EIR.

When assessing the risk to the public, the consultant says that, “we judge that patrons of the park could potentially come into direct contact with residual pesticides present in shallow soils via inhalation (of fugitive dust), ingestion, or dermal exposure,” (Volume 2, Appendix H, Page 31 EBS).

The city spent almost three years from December 2004 to October 2008 before presenting the EIR to the Planning Commission. The city, of course, got what it paid for, which was a favorable report on the insignificance of any contamination.

Yet the city agreed to a San Diego County Department of Environmental Health Voluntary Assistance Program in order to mitigate the nonexistent contamination. Why pay for an expensive onsite testing and burial of noncontaminated soil?

Because the city knew it had a serious problem with the high level of toxaphene, knew it had significant safety issues for construction workers at the “low” residential levels and serious risks for surrounding neighbors during construction.

So in the September 2009 court hearing before Superior Court Judge Earl Maas III, the city agreed to mitigate the contaminated soil, which cleared the way for park construction. The city had a court victory with an admission of contamination.

Why has the city turned on the spin machine after agreeing to mitigate the soil contamination? Patrick Murphy in an e-mail said the city can always do more mitigation, although it doesn’t have to. Does he really expect us to believe that the city is rewarding the people in Cardiff who fought the city for ten years?

If that’s the case, why didn’t the city simply do the cleanup after receiving the Dudek site assessment in March 2001? And why did the city attempt a negative declaration, then lose a lawsuit, pay $54,000 in legal fees, do the EIR anyway, and then spend 3 years writing it. The answer is simple: to avoid doing the cleanup.

The city has a policy for cleaning up greenhouse property with “low” levels of contamination for residential subdivisions. Contaminated soil must [now] be removed or buried under the private lots, not under public right-of-way. This is to avoid future exposure to the city workers. It ignores possible exposure to the new homeowners [don't add a swimming pool]. Yet on the Hall property the soil with the same or more problematic contamination will be buried on site where city workers might risk future exposure. It seems the city has disregard for both citizens and its own workers when it is convenient to do so.

Gerald Sodomka is a resident of Cardiff-by-the-Sea.

Read more: Coast News Group - Is City Council spinning the truth

Post-script:
High levels of metallic ions were also found in the soil on the Hall property.  The greenhouses had been built with pressure treated lumber containing chromated copper arsenate, which had leached into the soil.  The city tried to dismiss the arsenic by saying that all soils in the Western US are naturally high in arsenic.  Well, not everywhere and not in the soils of coastal San Diego County.  The city used to do water sampling in Rossini Creek just west of the property boundary in Cardiff Glen, but stopped when very high levels of arsenic were measured, then later falsified the report to show normal levels.  The city didn't seem concerned that the high levels of these toxic metals were washing into San Elijo Lagoon and then into the ocean at Cardiff Reef.

Curious question: Why did the Director of Finance run the Hall park project? 

The long delay in park construction and rains have probably washed away most of the problem.  However, Jennifer Smith, project manager for the park property had planned to salvage the lumber.  It was chipped and piled in three high mounds to be spread over the property as a mulch.  A terrible idea with contaminated wood.  The city was forced to haul the chips always to the Sycamore Canyon dump for proper disposal, and then lied in the EIR that it had done this.  Before the chips were removed a weekend Santa Ana wind blew the toxic dust all over west Cardiff.  Hexavalent chromium is considered a carcinogen when breathed or ingested.  Fortunately there were no drinking water wells in the area that would have poisoned the users.

What is Sodomka's solution? End the spin? But, what good are providing solutions until those in charge stop denying a problem exists?