ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

LA COUNTY SUPERVISORS APPROVE NEWHALL LAND PROJECT AND EIR

     The Los Angeles Daily News reports that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, on a 3-1 vote, yesterday certified the Newhall land West Creek housing development project in Valencia and approved the project going forward.  This certification and approval occurs only after the Los Angeles Regional Planning Commission, based on the discovery of perchlorate contamination above the State's Public Health Goal of 6 ppb in area groundwater, delayed the project to request that the developer further study the contamination problem.  See my Post of July 9, 2005.

     Environmental groups have vigorously opposed the West Creek project, contending that the development should not go forward until remediation of the perchlorate contamination is at least started by Newhall land.  It is not clear to me whether these groups' litigation options to halt or delay the project have been exhausted such that the County certification and approval is the final word; however, I'll Post what I learn about this.

FAVORABLE PRESS COVERAGE FOR OLIN CORPORATION IN SAN JOSE PERCHLORATE TRIAL

     On July 16, 2005, I Posted that trial against Olin Corporation opened in San Jose.  The suit, by plaintiff homeowners, claims that their property values and lifestyles have been damaged by Olin's conceded contamination of area groundwater with perchlorate.

     The plaintiffs are getting no sympathy from the Gilroy Dispatch, however.  In an editorial of July 22, 2005, the paper opines about one of the plaintiffs' cases:

It is difficult to understand how plaintiff Teresa Pereira can claim to have suffered a damaged home value when her home has increased in value from $410,000 in 1998 to $990,000 earlier this year.

     After noting that Olin Corporation "has not been faultless through this whole sorry saga" (among other things, the company does not contest that it is the source of the contamination at issue), the paper goes on to say that "neither has the company been a villain."  The editorial goes on to recount the series of measures the company has done to clean up the contamination and concludes with the advice that:

The jury has a right, nay, a duty to infuse a little justice and a little common sense into this suit.... We hope that they will do so.

    Usually, it's pretty hard for the polluter to get such favorable press coverage; and the Executive Committee at Olin must therefore be smiling. For the complete Gilroy Dispatch editorial, go here.

DEFENDANT APPEALS FROM MICHIGAN TOXIC MOLD VERDICT

According to The News Herald, the landlord has filed notice of appeal from the $925,000 jury verdict award to a Michigan renter.  The award was based on the jury's finding that the renter suffered severe asthmatic attacks after exposure to mold in her apartment caused by a leak from another apartment.  See Post on this Blog of June 3, 2005.

UPDATE ON STATUS OF AB1341

     Senator Lowenthal's office has now gotten back to me with respect suddenly to placing AB 1341 (which had been sailing through the California Legislature) on the "inactive" bill list (see my Post of July 13, 2005).

     The Senator's office advises that he moved to place the bill on inactive status at the request of Assemblymember Ira Ruskin (D-San Mateo), the author of the bill.  I therefore am checking with the Assemblymember's office and will advise when I know something more.

RIALTO, COLTON AND FONTANA RECEIVE EPA GRANT TO CLEAN UP PERCHLORATE

     Last week, Senator Feinstein's office issued a press release announcing that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has issued a $482,000 grant to assist the California cities of Rialto, Colton and Fontana to help clean up perchlorate contamination in groundwater.  There will be an additional $288,700 distributed sometime later this year, per the press release.

The full text of the press release can be found here.  For a discussion of pending civil litigation related to this perchlorate situation, see my Post on this Blog of July 9, 2005.

PERCHLORATE PROPERTY-DAMAGE TRIAL OPENS IN SAN JOSE FEDERAL COURT

     Today's news brings word that 105 residents of San Martin, California have the case of two of their "pilot" plaintiffs at trial against Olin.  Olin made highway flares for many years at a local factory; and the process uses perchlorate.  Per the  San Jose Mercury News (free subscription site):

The first trial on the presence of perchlorate -- a chemical used in road flares -- in the drinking water of hundreds of residents from Morgan Hill to Gilroy began Tuesday, 2 1/2 years after the pollution was discovered.

In the case, 105 residents of the San Martin area sued Olin, a Norwalk, Conn.-based company in federal District Court in San Jose.

The residents are not alleging any health problems from the pollution, but rather a loss of property value totaling $36 million and emotional distress.

     Since property values have during the real estate boom apparently continued to rise in the San Martin area, it will be interesting to watch whether or not the jury hearing the case is at all sympathetic to plaintiffs' claims of damage to their property values.

SEN. BOXER THREATENS TO DELAY EPA NOMINEE CONFIRMATION

     According to reports by the Associated Press hitting the Internet this evening, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) is threatening to block the confirmation of an EPA nominee unless the Senator gets some answers:

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., indicated she might block one of the nominees unless she gets details on an EPA list of 103 Superfund sites where the agency has suggested human exposure is possible. She said she wants the sites listed in order of health hazard, along with details on cleanup costs and how many children live nearby.

"All I've gotten from EPA is incomplete information," Boxer told Susan Bodine," the nominee for assistant administrator for the office of solid waste and emergency response, which includes the Superfund program.

     I confess that I don't get it-- how does blocking a needed nominee (I assume the post that Ms. Bodine is taking is presently vacant) help anything?  Keeping the post vacant might satisfy Senator Boxer's pique; but it would seem that if EPA is behind the informational curve the agency would need more, not less, senior staff to give direction.  Perhaps someone out there more familiar with Senate procedures than I am can educate me as to how Senator Boxer's attitude is constructive.

     The same AP story labels Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) as also threatening to obstruct EPA senior staff nominations.  This obstructionist label may not be fair--the Senator's remarks quoted by the AP seem to indicate that he is not attempting to hold up any present nominees and is merely warning the EPA that he may adopt tougher tactics in the future if he cannot get access to information he is requesting.  Specifically,

"I'm not interested in holding any of your nominations hostage," Obama said at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on nominees for EPA deputy administrator and to head the agency's enforcement and solid waste divisions.

"But if you get any resistance from your future boss, the administrator, about this, you should let him know I'm deeply concerned about this and willing to gum up the works a little bit until I get a clear response," he told the nominees.

      It should be noted that Senator Obama's specific complaint is that EPA has not issued certain lead-based paint regulations which the Senator contends were supposed to be issued in 1996--during the first term in office of President Clinton.  Thus, EPA's delay is at least one of the few bipartisan things occurring in Washington these days!

TOXIC MOLD "DO IT YOURSELF" DETECTION KITS SOON TO BE AVAILABLE AT WAL MART

     PRO-LAB, a maker of various home safety test kits, issued a press release the day before yesterday announcing that the company's PRO-LAB® "Do-It-Yourself Mold Test Kit that is a safe, reliable and easy to use test kit to detect ... potentially deadly spores, ... will soon be available at select Wal-Mart stores around the country."

     The press release further advised that the home-testing kits are widely available even now:

"These test kits are available to the general public at over 40,000 leading home centers, hardware stores, pharmacy chains, supermarkets, and a wide category of specialty outlets – stores include The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Kroger, Distribution America, CVS/pharmacy, True Value, Scotty’s, Distribution America -- and this summer at various Wal-Mart stores."

     PRO-LAB apparently sells a wide-range of home safety testing kits, including kits for testing for radon, lead and carbon monoxide.  The company seems to be taking the "do-it-yourself" market to a whole new level, although I expect that professional consultants will probably caution about the limitations on the information that can presently be revealed by self-testing.

     If you have any experience using home safety testing kits, please post a comment letting me and the readers know about the experience.

AB 1341, BILL RE MAJOR APPLIANCE RECYCLING, GOES INACTIVE

     In a surprising move, AB 1341 (see Posts of April 21 and April 26, 2005, under the category "RECYCLING" on the right-hand side of this Blog) has been placed on the "inactive" file as of Monday, July 11.  The bill makes some technical amendments to already-existing legislation (AB 2277) requiring that, as of January 1, 2006, commercial recyclers of major household appliances obtain State certification.

     AB 1341 had unanimously passed the Assembly and was on the verge of passage by the Senate, when Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) made a motion to place the bill on inactive status.  I have contacted the Senator's office to attempt to find out why the bill was suddenly derailed.

     The inactive status of AB 1341 does not, however, change the requirement that as of January '06 commercial recyclers will have to be State-certified under AB 2277.

PERCHLORATE LITIGATION IN SANTA CLARITA AND RIALTO

     Today's newspapers bring word of perchlorate-related litigation in 2 Southern California communities-- Santa Clarita and Rialto.

     According to the Los Angeles Times, 4 environmental groups--  the Sierra Club, Friends of the Santa Clara River, the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Water Impact Network-- have sued to halt the Santa Clarita-area construction of 1,000+ residential units as part of a project known as Riverpark.  The suit contends that the Santa Clarita City Council improperly approved the project last month despite environmental concerns (the project is near a drinking-water well contaminated with perchlorate above the 6 ppb State-recommended standard).

     The Times' article also references the fact that another, larger Santa Clarita-area project has been tied up in first, litigation, and, second, a request by the Los Angeles Regional Planning Department for the developer to conduct further environmental study because of the just-referenced perchlorate-contaminated drinking-water well.  The County plans in August to review the new study.

     Meantime, the San Bernardino County Sun reports that the City of Rialto has sued the County of San Bernardino and others over the County's plan to add a surcharge to residents' trash bills as a means to pay for clean up of perchlorate-contaminated area drinking water.  The City contends that the County, the Defense Department and others allegedly responsible for the contamination situation should pay the clean-up freight instead.

     For previous news and views regarding perchlorate, including the question of whether the perchlorate health threat is even real, go to the right-hand side of this Blog and under "Categories" click on "perchlorate".