City’s gas monitor charged

-- Jose Paul Corona

The company hired by the city to monitor levels of methane gas

under Edison Community Park and Huntington Beach Central Library has

been charged with submitting false data to the Orange County Health

Care Agency.

Orange County prosecutors have filed misdemeanor charges against

Fleet Rust, president of Simi Valley-based GeoScience Analytical,

Inc.

Rust has been charged with submitting false data, a practice known

as dry-labbing.

Calls to Rust and GeoScience were not returned.

“If the allegations are true it’s just unconscionable,”

Councilwoman Connie Boardman said. “We’re talking about methane,

which in an enclosed area is highly explosive.”

Rust and his company were hired to monitor levels of methane gas

at Edison Community Park, at Magnolia Street and Hamilton Avenue, and

under the Huntington Beach Central Library, on Talbert Avenue. Both

were built on former landfills and are near residential areas.

Methane gas, which is created by decomposing solid waste, can be

dangerous in large amounts because it can explode if allowed to build

up underground.

Reporting accurate data is crucial because providing false

information puts the public at risk, said Nick Thompson, a deputy

district attorney in the environmental protection unit of the Orange

County district attorney’s office.

GeoScience has been working with the city for the past couple of

years and is paid on a monthly basis, Thompson added.

Suspicions about the data being provided to the Orange County

Healthcare Agency arose in August when the agency noticed that the

information reported by GeoScience seemed inconsistent with past

data, Thompson said.

“It was evident to us that the samples hadn’t been conducted for

several months,” he said.

The city then hired a second firm to test for methane gas. It was

discovered that the data provided by GeoScience was not accurate,

Boardman said.

The fire department got permission to enter homes in both areas to

test for gas and discovered that gas levels weren’t high enough to

cause problems, Boardman added.

“When you hire someone to do a job, you expect them to do it and

not pretend to do it,” Boardman said. “It completely destroys your

trust in the company.”

If convicted of the charges, Rust could face a jail sentence of up

to two years and a fine of $50,000 for violating the California

Health and Safety Code.

Both the city and fire department may also be reimbursed a total

of $30,000. That is the cost of the investigation plus follow-up

testing and monitoring of the sites.

The district attorney is sending labs a message, said Huntington

Beach Fire Chief Mike Dolder.

“Don’t break the law or falsify scientific records,’” Dolder said.

“The community is at risk when you do.”

Tests confirm that there is no public danger at the sites, Dolder

added.

Broken pump stations may mean sewage in harbor

A recent survey released by Orange County Coastkeeper found that

Huntington Harbour’s pump-out stations, which transport raw sewage

from boats into the sewer system onshore, worked only 44% of the time

between June and September.

With the pumps often not in working order, boaters may be

illegally dumping raw sewage into the ocean.

Complaints about inoperable pump-out stations in Huntington

Harbour, Newport Harbor and Dana Point Harbor prompted the survey,

said Garry Brown, executive director of Orange County Coastkeeper, an

environmental group.

“I think that’s what really got us to do it,” he said. “We didn’t

have any particular bent, we just wanted to see what were the

circumstances.”

Rather than answering nagging questions, the survey raised more

questions, Brown said.

The group obtained a list of pump stations from the state and

inspected each one.

“We found that in many cases pumps were broken,” Brown said. “Some

haven’t been working all summer.”

Once the pumps break down, it seems they are difficult to repair.

“There were no spare parts -- nobody stocks parts to take care of

them,” Brown said, adding that the other problem they found was that

the only repairman able to fix the pumps lacks the proper insurance

to work on county property.

It is often unclear who is in charge of the pump stations, Brown

said -- the city or the county.

The Orange County Health Care Agency has not yet seen the report

and can’t comment on it, said Monica Mazur, an Environmental Health

Specialist with the agency, but she didn’t express surprise at the

news.

“It’s always been an issue that’s been out there,” Mazur said.

Mazur did note that bacteria levels in the harbor were not out of

the ordinary.

“We take samples in the harbor on a routine basis,” she said. “We

don’t really see horrible samples routinely in Huntington Harbour.”

City officials weren’t caught off guard by the survey, either.

“It doesn’t surprise me too much,” said Councilman Ralph Bauer, a

resident of Huntington Harbour, who has long fought for more

stringent regulations of live-aboards in the harbor, citing dumping

as one of his reasons.

The Clean Water Act has to be enforced and regular inspections are

the key to preventing such problems, Bauer said.

To do that, funding has to be found despite city budget woes, even

if money has to be taken out of the general fund, Bauer said.

“You just get the money and do it,” he said.

Council hands out environmental awards

Mayor Debbie Cook and Al Hendricker, chairman of the city’s

Environmental Board presented the group’s annual awards to nine

people at the City Council meeting on Monday.

All of the recipients were recognized for their outstanding

efforts to preserve, conserve and protect the city’s environmental

resources. They were also honored for their efforts to educate

residents.

The recipients included: Rotary Club, Huntington Beach Tree

Society, Orange County Conservation Corps, Rainbow Disposal, Ecology

Tires Inc., the Environmental studies Department at Golden West

College along with residents Garry Brown, Rob Gerber, Marinka Horack

and Trudy Ibbetson.

All of the recipients were given a certificate of recognition and

their names will be placed on a plaque at City Hall.