BS Ranch Perspective
I know that this subject matter is not the thing that you want the anyone to feel what it is like to have all the business conducted behind closed doors, but sometimes the old saying "What Goes Around Comes Around" comes to mind with this story!!
The reason being is that the Rialto City Council is crying because the people in charge of the Perchlorate situation that THEY are in Charge of, are ignoring all their requests and going behind closed doors and having the meetings to discuss the Perchlorate problems. Ed Scott, Owen, and others are very confused why this is happening to them, Well I have to say that "What goes Around, Comes Around"!
The people of Rialto didn't speak out the last time and they are asking for the services that they are getting when it comes to the business of Rialto and what goes on there. The Perchlorate should have been turned over to the Environmental Protection Agency at the start, but the City Council listened to the Council whom is not working in the best interest of his Client, but the best interest of his WALLET!! He Recommended going to Court and filing a case against businesses that were probably not in control of the employees that were dumping the perchlorate in the first place. They were the companies that purchased the smaller companies that were responsible for the disposal of the Perchlorate. The EPA, should have been called to begin with, and then the EPA should have been the people that should have been after the responsible party for the DISPOSAL of PERCHLORATE!! It wasn't up to Rialto directly to be the police for the EPA. Owen just wanted to fill his wallet with a whole bunch of money that he would be using for this case. The other employees of the city that were on board were hired by Owen as experts for their testimony.
Now this is all coming back to bite the city Council in the butt and still nobody is up in arms against them, nobody is wondering why they spent some $23Million dollars of the Utility Tax to get through the first part of this Perchlorate Battle, and now that they are not seeing any recourse and any money coming back in, Owen is still not being fired. I don't get it??
BS Ranch
Closed-door water talks frustrate Rialto council
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/26/2007 09:35:13 PM PST
Rialto wants its groundwater cleaned up, but a local water board has cut the city out of talks with three companies who are in "closed-door briefings" on the remediation process.
The city, which wrote a strongly worded letter Monday to the state's Environmental Protection Agency headquarters complaining about the insider talks, views the negotiations as a slap in its face.
It wants to be at the table on the talks to clean up industrial chemicals discharged in its northern section because it did a lion's share of the legwork to build a legal case against the companies.
The three companies accused of contaminating a 160-acre site in Rialto are Goodrich, Emhart - a defunct division of Black & Decker - and Rialto-based fireworks company Pyro Spectaculars.
The purpose of the letter on Monday was to request that state EPA Secretary Linda Adams order the local water board to open the door to city officials on the talks with the companies.
"Rialto needs more than a prayer and a hope that the regional board staff will safeguard Rialto's water interests," wrote councilmembers Winnie Hanson and Ed Scott. "We simply want our underground drinking water supply cleaned up so it can be replenished in the future."
Rialto officials say that 720million gallons of water will become contaminated while the water board and companies "talk" over the next few months.
"I think it's totally ridiculous," said Scott, a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee.
"Why are they doing it behind closed doors? It makes no sense to me," he said.
Scott suggested that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should dissolve the regional board.
The staff of the local water agency - called the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board - and lawyers for the companies, recently agreed to negotiate a possible settlement.
"The parties have agreed to enter settlement discussions," said Bob Wyatt, a lawyer for Emhart.
The two sides only agreed to talk recently after a court hearing was put off last week that would have examined whether public hearings could proceed on who was responsible for the pollution.
"We are seeking a settlement that achieves cleanup of the perchlorate and TCE contamination ... (flowing down from) the 160-acre site," said Gerard Thibeault, the Santa Ana board's executive officer, referring to the Riverside-based Santa Ana board's recent cleanup efforts.
TCE, or trichloroethylene, is a solvent used in various industrial cleaning products.
Perchlorate, used to produce explosives like rocket fuel and fireworks, is flowing through Rialto from industrial sites first used by the U.S. military during World War II.
Perchlorate can be harmful to humans by interfering with the thyroid gland, which plays a role in metabolism and neurological development.
The state umbrella group that oversees the Santa Ana board, called the State Water Resources Control Board, was scheduled to hold hearings in August to determine if the three companies should clean up some of the perchlorate. Rialto and the staff from the regional Santa Ana board, headed by Thibeault, were going to act as prosecutors against the companies.
But before the hearings could start, the companies filed lawsuits saying that the state board process was flawed and asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs to keep the hearings from getting off the ground.
Janavs halted the hearing process. On Nov. 1, she consolidated the companies' lawsuits into one and made it clear that no matter what she decides, someone will appeal the case, likely up to the California Supreme Court.
On Nov. 21, the two sides - the companies versus the regional and state water boards, which are represented by the California attorney general - were scheduled to argue about whether Janavs should allow the state hearings to go forward. But Wednesday's arguments were delayed because the parties said they wanted to talk.
Rialto officials complained that they were not part of the discussions between the parties. Rialto provided a majority of the regional board's evidence against the suspected polluters.
"We can only hope that the regional board staff is going to obtain the emergency cleanup that this community needs," said Bob Owen, Rialto's city attorney.
Scott said at the next council meeting on Dec. 4, he hopes the council will vote to recommend Schwarzenegger ask the EPA to declare the 160-acre site a Superfund site.
Also on Wednesday, Thibeault ordered Ken Thompson, who owns land above the McLaughlin Pit, which is a major source of perchlorate contamination, to conduct a soil and groundwater investigation.
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