The City of Santa Clarita is desperately trying to salvage a stinging legal defeat that resulted in a $25.3 million dollar legal judgment. In order to try and recoup some of this loss, the City obtained an exclusive one year option to acquire the remaining lien against the Whittaker Bermite property which will potentially cost another $13 million. Presumably they are trying to get their partners in this property to pony up that additional money in exchange for developing this toxic site with the City.
That press release played down the sordid history of this property and the remediation needed to make the land viable for development. But to understand what the health risks might be at the City of Santa Clarita’s toxic Whitaker-Bermite site you first have to understand the history of the parcel of land in the heart of the City. The property has had a long string of explosives manufacturer owners since the early 1930’s through 1999.
According to the California State Department of Toxic Substances Control report, the Whitaker-Bermite property was the site of the Los Angeles Powder Company from 1934 to 1936 and “reportedly manufactured dynamite.” In 1936 the facility became the Halifax Explosives Company which “reportedly manufactured fireworks” through 1942 and then changed to the “E.P. Halliburton, Inc. briefly in which the facility manufactured oil field explosives.” The facility then changed hands to become the Bermite Powder Company “which produced flares, photoflash devices for battlefield illumination, and other explosives including detonators, fuses, boosters, coated magnesium, and stabilized red phosphorus” from 1942 through 1967.
In 1967 the Whittaker Corporation “continued the facility manufacturing ammunition rounds, detonators, fuses, boosters, flares, signal cartridges, glow plugs, tracer and pyrophoric pellets, igniters, ignition compositions, explosive bolts, powder charges, rocket motors, gas generators, and missile main charges, all on an as needed basis, sometimes in small quantities, largely dependent on defense contract orders.” Although the Whitaker Corporation owned the property until 1999, manufacturing & testing operations stopped in 1987. Since 1999 the property has been owned by Santa Clarita LLC, which is currently in bankruptcy.
The Whittaker-Bermite property is highly contaminated with perchlorate, both in the soils and the ground water. The California State Department of Toxic Substances also found an assortment of toxic metals (including antimony, lead, arsenic, barium, cadmium, and copper), poly-nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), were found in soil. Depleted uranium (DU) was found in an area where a firing range was once located.
Long term exposure to perchlorate can possibly damage the thyroid gland and has been linked to bone marrow problems among other health issues. According to the National Academy of Science, “aside from perchlorate affecting the thyroid gland, there has been some concern on perchlorate’s effects on fetuses, newborns and children.”
Exposure to poly-nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) pollution during pregnancy can result in low birth weight, premature delivery, and heart malformations. According to one health report; “Long-term health effects of exposure to PAHs may include cataracts, kidney and liver damage, and jaundice. Breathing or swallowing large amounts of naphthalene, a PAH, can cause the breakdown of red blood cells.”
Studies have shown that long term expose to depleted uranium suggest the possibility of reproductive and neurological disorders. According to a World Health Organization report the proximal tubules (the main filtering component of the kidney) in “the kidneys are considered to be the main site of potential damage from chemical toxicity of uranium.” The report also sites “lung tissue damage is possible leading to a risk of lung cancer that increases with increasing radiation dose” exposure.
As I mentioned previously, I wouldn’t want to be breathing the air near the Whitaker-Bermite site on a windy day!!
One of the big questions to ask the Santa Clarita City Council is; can this property be properly remediated to allow for future use? In other words, can this land be cleaned up enough that it will not pose a health risk to our valley communities? The answer is probably yes depending upon who you talk to!
During the Whitaker-Bermite Community Advisory Group meetings held between 2001-2003, those attending “were told that if residential, nursing homes or schools were going to be built at Whitaker-Bermite, per its then current zoning and Specific Plan, that the Department of Toxic Substances Control would required Whittaker to “dig to China if necessary” to get the contaminants out of the soil before housing could be built on locations with toxic contamination” according a resident that attended. A dig to China approach to cleaning up this site would thoroughly remove the toxins but would be a costly undertaking.
According to one legal expert, apparently sometime between 2004 and 2010, the Department of Toxic Substances Control as a matter of policy “changed the remediation standard for soil on residential, nursing home and school properties to a “dig down and remediate only 10′ from the surface” standard.” This change from a “dig to China” effort to a “Dig down to 10’ from the surface” may have been a result of costs and the fact that remediation funds could be depleted before the site was fully cleaned.
So if this is true, then one could view the clean up as being driven by financial decisions and not by the actual potential future health risks of only doing a partial clean-up. We have all seen the results of decisions that were driven by financials and not by what was the right thing to do. As an example, back in the 70’s the Ford Motor Company thought it would be cheaper to payout on some lawsuits rather than fix a design flaw that caused the Ford Pinto to explode in rear impact accidents. A financial decision that put profits ahead of human life!
Are City of Santa Clarita taxpayers being setup for a catastrophic event that could potentially bankrupt their City and leave them holding the bag in the future? Anything is possible, but the bigger question is do you actual trust the current City leadership to make the right decision or, as we have asserted previously, is the City leadership trying desperately to double-down on a stinging legal defeat over the botched eminent domain fiasco?
Either way the facts point to the potential that the City is gambling with the physical and financial health of current and possibly future residents. Again, do you trust the current City leadership to make the right decision?
Dave Bossert- Commentary
Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.
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