Ascon nears historic cleanup deal

The largest oil and chemical companies that unloaded polluted

waste on the Ascon property for five decades are scheduled to begin

final talks with regulators on an agreement to clean up the toxic

dump, a state toxics spokeswoman said.

Once negotiations are complete, the nine companies are expected to

sign what is known as a consent order, in which they agree to clean

up a noxious styrene pit, lagoons of oily waste and a handful of

other chemicals spread across the terrain of the 38-acre property.

Officials with the California Department of Toxic Substances are

overseeing the pending agreement, which is expected to be finalized

in mid-November. The talks will begin within the next few weeks.

“They have agreed to enter into a good-faith negotiation on a

consent order,” Jeanne Garcia said. “We’re optimistic. This is the

furthest we’ve gotten with anybody on this property.”

If the companies eventually sign the order, it would be historic.

A string of developers hoping to use the land, once clean, for

beachfront housing sank into bankruptcy over the past decade when

faced with the high cleanup price tag. The dump is at Hamilton Avenue

and Magnolia Street in southeast Huntington Beach.

An attorney with Chevron Texaco who is involved in the talks said

he was confident a deal could be struck.

“We’ve begun discussions with [regulators], and we intend to

continue to negotiate,” said David Giannotti, an outside counsel with

Chevron. “We’re going to be able to reach an agreement with them.”

City leaders have bemoaned the lack of progress to clean up one of

Southern California’s most polluted landfills. So they welcomed the

news that an agreement could be signed soon.

“It’s good news, after the 10 years I’ve spent working on it,”

Councilman Ralph Bauer said. “I think it’s going to benefit that

area.”

Regulators have estimated the cleanup of the soil on the site

would cost at least $31.5 million. Contaminants are also suspected to

have entered the ground water, but more investigation is needed.

The list of companies moving to implement a cleanup plan is a

who’s who of industrial giants -- Atlantic Ritchfield Corp., Conoco

Inc., Dow Chemical Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Philips Petroleum, Shell

Transport Trading, Southern California Edison and TRW Inc.

The companies have hired several environmental consultants to

assess the contamination on the site, including Fullerton-based

Project Navigator and GeoSyntec, a nationwide firm with a Surf City

office.

On Friday, GeoSyntec will begin installing three air-quality

monitoring wells -- testing canisters that will be inserted into

8-inch holes in the ground -- in the neighborhoods surrounding the

site to determine levels of pollution in the air. Samples are

scheduled to be taken Aug. 9.

Later in the month, environmental consultants for the companies

have said they will insert Geo-Probes and piezometers -- small tubes

used to take soil samples -- on the Ascon site.

In early June, consultants took ground-water samples in the

neighborhoods surrounding the property. The environmental consultant

performing the work will report the results to state toxics

regulators by the end of September, Garcia said.

Between 1938 and 1984, Ascon was a functioning landfill. The

companies used it to dump drilling mud, fuel oil, chromic acid,

sulfuric acid, aluminum slag, styrene (a form of plastic) and other

waste.

--Paul Clinton

Orange County beaches listed among dirtiest

In the constant and alternating evaluation of the nation’s beaches

Orange County’s -- including Surf City beaches -- were listed among

the dirtiest.

Beach postings and closures in Orange County spiked to an

eye-popping 80.7% in 2001, a national environmental watchdog reported

this month.

“These beaches extend all the way from Dana Point, [and] they are

subject to urban runoff,” Councilman Peter Green said. “But I’m

surprised that we’re worse than beaches on the East Coast.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council reported the data in a study

of the nation’s beaches that was released last week.

When county health regulators discover heightened levels of

bacteria in the water, signs are posted to warn swimmers to stay out

of the water. If a sewage spill occurs, regulators close the beach.

Orange County’s beaches were marred by one of those two stigmas

for 1,592 days in 2001. There were only 881 such days in 2000, the

report said.

Ventura County came in at No. 2 on the hit list, with 1,540 days.

Los Angeles County was third, with 1,046 days.

All of Surf City’s beaches -- Huntington State Beach, Huntington

City Beaches, Bolsa Chica State Beach and Huntington Harbour -- were

on the council’s list of trouble spots.

But several city officials were unconcerned with the report,

saying that while the state beaches have had troubles and closures,

city beaches have been clean since 1999.

“We monitor our beaches, especially in Orange County, almost on a

daily basis,” Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff said.

In a recent study released by Heal the Bay, beaches throughout the

city received mostly A ratings, she said.

Much of the county’s urban runoff -- polluted water that is known

to include animal and human waste, lawn pesticides and copper brake

residue from the roadways -- runs down channels leading to Surf City

beaches or into city storm drains. In that way, the city tends to act

as a receptacle for the county’s polluted waste water.

The increase is due in large part to sewage spills, the study

noted.

Sewage spills rose from 40 to 51 last year, said Monica Mazur,

supervisor of the Orange County ocean water protection program, which

is run by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

While Mazur doesn’t dispute the figures released by the National

Resources Defense Council, she did say they could be misleading.

The Orange County Health Care Agency is taking a closer look at

bacteria levels throughout the county and, with the help of new

technology, will lead to more warnings and closures, she said.

“We have better computerized systems to track spills,” Mazur said,

“Because of that, we’re having more postings.”

While the increase is significant, Mazur said water cleanliness

standards in the state are more strict when compared with other

states. This also contributes to the increase in warnings and

closures, she said.

--Paul Clinton and Jose Paul Corona

Supervisors’ denial no surprise to trust

Few were surprised by the latest decision in the development saga

that has spanned more than 30 years surrounding Bolsa Chica last week

-- least of all those who were defeated. The Orange County Board of

Supervisors’ resounding denial of appeals filed by the Bolsa Chica

Land Trust was par for the course, land trust members said.

“We’re sophisticated enough to understand that the outcome of the

supervisors was not unexpected, but it was disappointing

nonetheless,” said Evan Henry, the land trust’s president.

County supervisors unanimously upheld an Orange County Planning

Commission decision to allow Hearthside Homes to build a 388-home

development known as the Brightwater project on a 65-acre section of

the upper mesa.

Although they expected a denial of their pleas, land trust members

said supervisors continue to misunderstand the groups objections.

“I felt it was balanced and addressed everyone’s concerns,”

Supervisor Cynthia Coad, said of the revamped Brightwater project,

which began as a plan to build on 183-acres.

“I really admired the environmentalist that came forward, and

without their input in the past it would certainly look a lot

different today,” she added.

But whether new plans are fair and equitable is not the point,

Henry said.

“Our objections, officially, were to the [environmental-impact

report] process, and that the planning was not done appropriately,”

Henry said.

The group’s undisguised goal from the beginning has been to buy

the Bolsa Chica in its entirety from the owner and developer, he

said.

“From that standpoint, our purpose is to work with the owner to

purchase the land at fair market price and, as is their prerogative

although it’s disappointing, they have decided to go ahead with the

plan to try to develop. We feel it’s fair as an environmental group

to look for holes in the process,” Henry said.

And that is what they say the environmental report provides.

Although Henry said he is unsure what the group’s next step will

be, he said the fight will go on. The project is next scheduled to go

before the California Coastal Commission.

“We’ll be looking at it from all environmental angles as it

pertains to the Coastal Act, and one of those will be cultural,

archeological impacts,” said Coastal Commissioner Shirley Dettloff.

“I don’t know what [the Board of Supervisors’] reasoning was. I just

hope they were able to put effort into reviewing it because the trust

brought forward some very valid points.”

--Danette Goulet

Edison employees try to cancel pipeline sales

A group of unions representing employees of Southern California

Edison is challenging the utility’s sale of its network of pipelines

and storage tanks, a portion of which is in Surf City.

In a brief filed last week with administrative law Judge Carol

Brown, attorneys representing the Coalition of California Utility

Employees say the sale should be halted until Edison pays $8.5

million in what the group is saying are overcharges to ratepayers.

The attorneys cite a portion of the Public Utilities Code, known

as Section 377, to support their claim that the utility cannot divest

anything deemed to be part of its generating capacity until 2006. At

one point, the lines in Huntington Beach powered the AES power plant,

which was sold by Edison in the late 1990s.

State lawmakers inserted Section 377 into the code in January 2001

as a response to the state’s energy crisis.

Edison has been charging its customers $8.5 million a year to run

the oil-delivery system, attorney Kate Poole said.

On March 22, Edison announced it was selling its entire

oil-delivery system in Southern California, which includes 120 miles

of pipeline and nine-million gallons of storage capacity.

The Public Utilities Commission has scheduled hearings for August

to consider approving the sale to Pacific Terminals LLC, a Long Beach

pipeline operator. The company, owned by Denver billionaire Philip

Anshutz, has stepped in to buy the pipes and tanks for $158.2

million.

The pipelines crisscrossing through Huntington Beach are at the

southern end of Edison’s system. Pipeline runs north on Newland

Street, heads west on Garfield Avenue, north on Edwards Street, west

on Warner Street and north on Bolsa Chica Street.

Three large tanks, which can store 450,000 barrels or 18.9 million

gallons each, sit on Edison land directly south of the Ascon toxic

waste site. A smaller 26,000-gallon tank that sits across the flood

channel has also been included in the deal.

-- Paul Clinton