Council won't investigate school soil contamination
April 29, 2015
BY SARAH de CRESCENZO / STAFF WRITER
IRVINE ? Contaminated soil discovered in November at the future Portola High School site has fanned the fears of some residents who believe the location is unfit for a school, but experts said tests of the stained earth revealed it to be non-hazardous.
Irvine Unified School District Superintendent Terry Walker said in a letter to the Irvine City Council this week that the dirt on the former El Toro Marine base was excavated only out of ?an abundance of caution.?
Although Irvine officials do not have jurisdiction over the site, Councilwoman Beth Krom on Tuesday asked her colleagues to investigate the issue based on the concerns of a former planning commissioner, but found no support.
Harvey Liss, an engineer who was appointed to the Planning Commission by former Councilman Larry Agran, recently published his worries in the political monthly Irvine Community News & Views. Agran also opposes building the school there.
The contamination should have been publicly disclosed, Liss said, and its presence ? not predicted in the assessment of the site prior to construction ? should halt work and prompt additional testing.
He and other speakers urged the council to reconsider supporting the school site.
The district?s fifth comprehensive high school, under construction at the northeast border of the Great Park, is slated to open to an inaugural freshman class in August of 2016.
The soil, found 15 feet underground and adjacent to the site, was discovered during the construction of a storm drain box by developer Heritage Fields El Toro LLC, which is funding and building Great Park infrastructure.
Although not on Irvine Unified land, the district sent a geologist to the site.
David Richter, an environmental consultant for the city, also visited. On Nov. 18, he wrote that he expected the state Department of Toxic Substances Control would likely reconsider its approval for the school?s construction and ?only re-certify the site for school construction after it is satisfied that there is no significant risk to students or school workers.?
Results of soil tests commissioned by Heritage Fields revealed hydrocarbons and naphthalene, which is considered cancer-causing by the state. That soil was hauled away.
On Nov. 24, more excavation found the contamination extended eight feet onto the 40-acre school plot.
But tests of that dirt showed the contamination was ?below levels of concern for a school site,? said Denise Clendening, the district?s environmental consultant on the Portola High project. No naphthalene was detected.
Clendening has a Ph.D. in soil physics and 30 years of experience in site and human health risk assessment, the district says.
In January, more excavation revealed the stain extended 29 feet onto the school site. One of four soil samples taken detected an ?extremely low concentration? of hydrocarbons. About 405 cubic yards of soil were removed.
Krom proposed the city have the district and developer send representatives to discuss the contamination.
?I don?t want to be known as a council that doesn?t care,? she said.
Liss pointed to Richter?s letter as proof the contamination was not taken seriously.
But that letter was written in reference to the soil adjacent to the school.
?To date, we have uncovered no evidence, nor been presented any evidence, to suggest that the Portola High School site poses a human health risk to future students, staff or visitors,? Walker wrote to the council.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com
