Source: http://www.pe.com, March 15, 2016
By: Alicia Robinson
A contaminated former sewer plant site in Riverside will be safe for homebuilding after another environmental cleanup, and the site poses no health risk, state officials say.
But the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is overseeing the work, still faces distrust from residents and some city officials, who fear the neighborhood was harmed by what they call the agency’s mishandling of the contamination.
A wastewater plant operated on the nearly 60-acre property between Crest and Rutland avenues from 1942 to 1965. A spill of sewage sludge in 2003 led to the discovery of cancer-causing chemicals known as PCBs on the land, sometimes called the agricultural, or ag, park because of livestock shows once held there.
Toxic substances officials oversaw a two-phase cleanup and, in 2014, confirmed the land was suitable for homes. New testing in the fall, spurred by questions from residents and environmental activists, found some parts of the land had contamination above the state’s cleanup target.
Developer Henry C. “Chuck” Cox is waiting for state approval of the additional cleanup plan. He attended Tuesday night’s City Council meeting at which state officials spoke but did not comment.
Further testing at the property should begin Tuesday, and the remaining cleanup should start in late March or early April, toxic substances Director Barbara Lee told the council.
Lee’s appearance came after several requests from city officials that she answer questions about the cleanup and later tests that found contamination remained.
Some residents say they and their families and pets have become sick and some have died from illnesses they believe are linked to contamination from the sewer plant site. Lee said Tuesday that many tests have found no imminent public health risk from the site’s groundwater or dust.
Initial tests by regional water officials of water at and near the site and the Santa Ana River “showed no impact to groundwater or sediment,” Lee said.
Air samples taken during the earlier cleanup were analyzed for PCBs, but “were not found to be present in any of the samples,” Lee said.
Because city officials still have questions about a possible connection between residents’ health issues and the land, City Manager John Russo said he will ask the state Department of Public Health and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to look into residents’ concerns.
Residents have asked that homes in the neighborhood be checked for contamination.
On Tuesday they reiterated calls for the state to clean their homes and give them health tests.
“Every time the wind blows, it’s in our homes and in our lungs,” resident Marilyn Whitney said. “We want those tests.”
Some city officials had sharp questions for Lee, including Councilman John Burnard, who said bluntly, “What went wrong?” and Councilman Paul Davis, who asked how the council can trust that new testing data is correct.
Lee said her department has learned lessons from its handling of the site.
The land was one of the first properties to be addressed as a voluntary cleanup under a special agreement between the state and landowner.
When state officials decided where to test for contamination the first time, they made wrong assumptions about where the contamination was and didn’t find it all, Lee said.
After numerous questions and technical explanations of the cleanup target of 0.22 milligrams per kilogram of PCBs in the soil, the council asked its land-use subcommittee to explore whether it’s feasible to clean the land to a level where PCBs can no longer be detected.