Rialto should have set off to looked at petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency for Clean-up assistance at the get-go when this whole thing started, But instead, The City Father's (City Council) had to listen to the City's Hired Attorney for advice, the same Attorney whom all he could see was dollar ($$) Signs for his pockets. Mr Owen figured that it would be a simple open and closed case and he would pocket a cool million in the process. What Mr. Owen didn't think would happen was that there would be an actual fight on his hands by the businesses that may or may not be responsible for the contamination of the Water supply. To Date the City of Rialto has spent a total of upwards of $23+ Million Dollars and the Company has been fighting it all the way.
Any way that we look at it, they might have been within their Rights at that time to have Disposed of the Perchlorate the way that they did back then!! Mr. Owen in his desperation to fill his pocket with Green, has made a desperate Miscalculation by wanting to fight the companies with whom probably purchased smaller companies of companies which disposed of the Perchlorate the way that they did in back in the day!! Mr. Owen still is filling his pocket, and it is being filled more then he wanted with no end in sight, and now that he wants it to end, he cannot just end it with a Vote to go to the EPA, because the EPA will not take the "case" when it has an active case on the situation So, now Mr Owen has to Petition the Environmental Protection Agency to step in to review the case again, now that they are at a stand still in court due to the whole situation regarding the whole situation.
I mean the situation is this, Now that it is tied up in court NOBODY wants to touch it!! Nobody, not the EPA, not the Court, nobody, so we will see what happens with the EPA Again!!
We will have to wait and see what happens again!!!
BS Ranch
"It has become very apparent that we need to seek all the help and assistance that we can," said Councilman Ed Scott, immediately prior to the 5-0 vote Tuesday evening.
Even an EPA official who attended the meeting seemed to offer a premature vote of support to the city's efforts to attain the vaunted Superfund listing.
"I think we, like others, started to become concerned last year when the state's process began to get bogged down," said Wayne Praskins, Superfund project manager with the EPA.
The packed Council Chambers burst into applause following the vote.
Superfund is the federal government's hazardous waste cleanup program.
A chunk of the city's northern edge during World War II was a military storage facility and continues to be used as an industrial site.
The chief contaminant, perchlorate, was discovered in 1997 in Rialto.
Perchlorate is used to produce explosives, such as fireworks and rocket fuel. The perchlorate is flowing underground through much of the city in a plume that continues to grow.
In humans, perchlorate can interfere with the thyroid gland, which is necessary for regulating metabolism and development of the central nervous system.
The council-endorsed resolution petitions the EPA to designate a 160-acre area, bounded by Casa Grande Drive on the north and Locust Avenue on the east, as part of a Superfund site.
The resolution also asks the EPA to consider areas surrounding the source area as part of the possible Superfund site.
Numerous source areas of the perchlorate have been identified.
One of those areas is southwest of the 160-acre site and is being cleaned up by San Bernardino County under order from a state agency.
Praskins recently said state and federal environment officials will ask some of the parties accused of contaminating the area to begin doing investigative work at the source of the contamination.
Over the years, city officials have strongly opposed going the Superfund route and put their faith in state regulatory bodies and an upcoming federal lawsuit against dozens of parties. But the suspected polluters have used their lawyers' mastery of jurisprudence to befuddle state regulators and halt the regulatory process.
The State Water Resources Control Board was supposed to hold hearings to see if three companies - Goodrich, Black & Decker and Pyro Spectaculars - should pay to clean up the contamination, but a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge stopped those hearings from moving forward until questions about the fairness of the process could be settled.
The council has also faced scrutiny after it was reported that the city has spent about $20 million on investigations, litigation, treatment and other costs because of the perchlorate.
Praskins said the earliest an announcement on whether Rialto could get added to the Superfund list is sometime in late 2008.
The suspected polluters have complained that the state regulatory process is biased and unfair, prompting them to challenge it in court. EPA's process may be more difficult to challenge because federal courts can award significant penalties to parties that do not comply with EPA orders.
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