[CPEO-BIF] "Toxic soil at Jordan Downs: Massive cleanup fails where LA plans to build new shops, restaurants, " Los Angeles, California

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Toxic soil at Jordan Downs: Massive cleanup fails where LA plans to build new shops, restaurants
They have a plan to protect tenants, but watchdog groups say it doesn’t go far enough

BY JENNA CHANDLER
Curbed Los Angeles (CA)
July 14, 2017

When the first phase of construction on the major overhaul of the Jordan Downs public housing complex is finished next year, it will bring 115 new apartments to a once-industrial area of Watts. Future waves of construction will add even more housing, plus nine acres of open space, a community center, and a retail center comprised of shops, restaurants, and a much-anticipated grocery store. 

At a jubilant groundbreaking in June, it was the project’s commercial real estate developer, Arturo Sneider, CEO of Primestor Development, Inc., who closed out a string of hopeful speeches from politicians and developers, telling the exuberant crowd: “You’re sitting right now right about where the produce will be.” 

What those sitting there may not have known is that the city’s 17-month effort to clean up the property had failed. 

Tests performed on the site of the planned retail center have uncovered elevated levels of two chemicals, trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene, that can cause birth defects and cancer. In response, state regulators released a draft plan in May to protect future workers from longterm exposure to the toxins, which were detected below the surface in groundwater and soil vapors.

…

For the entire article, see
https://la.curbed.com/2017/7/14/15746194/jordan-downs-redevelopment-contamination-retail-center

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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