[CPEO-MEF] $65 million cleanup plan

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California
SANTA CLARITA DAILY NEWS
$65 million cleanup plan
Expected to take years
By Heather MacDonald
Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The company weighing whether to buy the defunct Bermite
explosives factory estimated it would cost about $65 million to rid the
polluted 996-acre site of dozens of poisonous chemicals and unexploded
ordnance waste.

At a series of meetings last week, Cherokee Investment Partners, one of
the nation's leading remediation firms, told Santa Clarita leaders they
would take the most conservative approach possible in cleaning and
developing the property, located in the center of the city off Soledad
Canyon Road.

"Our motive is to get the site cleaned up as soon as possible, to the
highest standard possible," said Wayne Dorband, chairman of Denver-based
International Risk Group, which will work with Cherokee.

The plan also estimated it would take three or four years to rid the
hilly property of the pollution left from decades of munitions
manufacturing by several companies.

Cherokee's cleanup plan has been endorsed by several large insurance
firms that are expected to provide protection for the North
Carolina-based company as well as the city of Santa Clarita, Dorband
said.

Earlier estimates of the cleanup pegged the cost at closer to $100
million.

While city officials praised Cherokee's professionalism and expressed
confidence in the company's ability to finance and complete the project,
several members of the Citizens Advisory Group that keeps tabs on the
cleanup said Thursday they were skeptical.

"That will simply not be an adequate amount of money to get the job
done," said Valerie Thomas, a member of the group and director of the
Newhall County Water District.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20949~1281214,00.html

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