Assemblyman David Hadley wants answers on state probe into soil at Rancho Palos Verdes park
Republican Assemblyman David Hadley is calling on the state Department of Toxic Substance Control to make public its findings into whether imported soil stored above the Ladera Linda soccer fields is contaminated with hazardous waste.
Hadley, whose district includes the Palos Verdes Peninsula, met with DTSC representatives in Sacramento this week to push for opening the upper fields for youth soccer or issuing an order to clean up the area if it’s contaminated.
The soil, deposited above the fields in April 2015, has become a point of contention between the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, which owns the fields, and local residents who have long questioned the cleanliness and origin of the soil. In April, the DTSC launched a multiagency criminal investigation into the soil, the results of which have not been released yet.
With the AYSO soccer season just weeks away, Hadley said he decided to meet with DTSC representatives because Peninsula residents who rely on the Ladera Linda fields have been “hung out in no-man’s land.”
“The frustrating thing for me, and I think for many of the people involved in Palos Verdes, is the DTSC is very limited in what they’re willing to say,” Hadley said.
DTSC CONCERNS
Early this month the DTSC issued an order to the district requiring the PVPUSD to install a fence around the area where the soil is stored beneath a plastic tarp. A few days before the order was issued, however, the district decided to erect a fence around the imported soil after an alleged act of vandalism left the tarp in shreds. The tarp was replaced, and the district installed a locked fence around the area.
This week, DTSC staff visited the site to determine if the district is complying with the department’s order, said DTSC spokesman Tim Reese in an email statement.
“DTSC has had some concerns about the district’s compliance and has been in discussions with the district this week about those concerns,” Reese said.
It’s unclear what those concerns are because another spokesman declined to elaborate.
OVERREACH BY AGENCY?
PVPUSD Superintendent Don Austin said the perimeter of the fence was adjusted this week, but he added that the district is objecting to an additional order from the DTSC to add more plastic covering to areas beyond the imported dirt. Austin called the order for additional covering “an overreach” by the DTSC and said it has the potential to harm nearby plants and wildlife habitat.
Hadley said he was told during his meeting with DTSC representatives on Wednesday that department staff had returned to the area above the soccer fields this week to take additional samples. However, the school district informed Hadley that no samples had been taken this week, and a DTSC representative confirmed to the Daily Breeze that none had been taken.
SLOW-MOVING INVESTIGATION
Hadley emphasized that he’s not pushing for one answer over another from the department, but he echoed sentiments from school district officials that the DTSC should make a decision one way or the other to resolve the issue.
Because the samples were originally taken in April and the upper soccer fields have been closed off since then suggests that the investigation by the DTSC has become an example of bureaucratic red tape holding up what should be a straightforward process, Hadley said.
“I think that bureaucracies tend to be very risk-averse — nobody wants to declare an examination or proceeding over until every possible t has been crossed and i has been dotted. … But while the DTSC is moving slowly, lots of great activities in people’s lives are being affected in Palos Verdes,” he said.
