Source: http://www.pe.com, July 6, 2017
By: Alicia Robinson

Greg Sweel, senior engineering geologist for the State Department of Toxic Substances Control, take a soil sample from the backyard of Siegfried Rissling in Riverside on Wednesday, July 5.

State geologists are looking for contamination on more than two dozen Riverside properties that surround a former sewer plant where an environmental cleanup already is underway.
They began collecting soil samples in the backyards of several homes and nearby Rutland Park in the city’s Arlanza neighborhood on Wednesday, July 5. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control officials are expected to take about two weeks to visit all 28 properties, said Peter Garcia, the department’s chief of brownfields restoration.
The investigation comes in response to concerns from residents, who fear that soil contaminated with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, could have blown from the former plant property and settled in their yards and houses. New homes are planned for the nearly 60-acre land.
The homes being checked all border the site, called the ag park because livestock shows were once held there. The land has been cleaned up twice since a 2003 spill of sewage sludge led to the discovery of PCBs in the soil.
Developer Henry C. “Chuck” Cox, who owns the land, plans to build homes there but can’t start the project until the state declares the site clean.
So far officials have no evidence that the homes or the park are contaminated, but the state toxics department wants to settle the question for worried residents, Garcia said. Some residents have attributed health problems such as rashes, tumors and cancer to the ag park site, but none have made their medical records public.

Taking samples

On Wednesday, geologist Greg Sweel knelt in the grass at the northern edge of Rutland Park and scooped soil with a disposable plastic trowel. The dirt ended up in a 4-ounce glass jar packed in a cooler with other samples.
To avoid tainting the samples, Sweel wore latex gloves and used a new trowel at each dig site. Back at his office, the jars would be placed with others into a larger cooler that gets sealed until it arrives at a Berkeley lab.
To figure out where to test, toxics officials worked with state Air Resources Board experts to create a model of wind patterns across the former plant site. It showed that homes to the south and west would likely have received most of any potential impact from airborne soil.
Garcia said all residents who were asked agreed to have samples taken on their land. Some who weren’t on the list asked to be included, he said. Only the properties closest to the site are being tested, he said, but if contamination on those properties is found to be above a certain level, more homes could be tested.
“If we detect something significant, then we would move ahead and evaluate what additional steps we would have to take,” Garcia said. “It’s a starting point.”

Other concerns

As Sweel was digging in the fourth and final spot at the park, residents Siegfried and Anna Rissling came by with their dog, Topper.
The Risslings have lived in their home abutting the site for 30 years and are frustrated that delays caused by the cleanup have prevented a street connection they say would ease traffic.
“By federal standard that land is clean,” Siegfried Rissling said, but because of some neighbors’ repeated objections, “Now it’s gotta sit (undeveloped).”
He allowed geologists to dig in his yard Wednesday, but said he just wants to see Jurupa Avenue connected so cars can use it instead of speeding by his Rutland Avenue driveway.
Garcia said it should take four to six weeks to get results from the yard samples, and cleanup work on the ag park site could by done by the end of August. A final report will take longer.

NEIGHBORHOOD TESTED

State officials are investigating whether contamination is present near a former Riverside sewer plant site that has been the subject of two environmental cleanups.
What: The Department of Toxic Substances Control is taking soil samples from the yards of 28 homes and Rutland Park in the city’s Arlanza neighborhood.
Why: Cancer-causing chemicals were found on the sewer plant property in 2003, and residents worried that contaminated dust may have blown onto their land.
What’s next: Sampling could take two weeks, and lab results should be available four to six weeks after that. If tests show contamination beyond the state’s threshold level, more homes may be checked.