Weapons test sites at Rancho Mission Viejo

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Critics Say Developers' Report Skirts Key Issues

Testing of possible toxic waste sites is ignored, environmentalists say.
Rancho Mission Viejo officials point out that the study is preliminary.

By Sara Lin
Los Angeles Times 
August 10, 2004

A draft environmental report for development of Orange County's largest
remaining parcel of privately owned vacant land fails to consider
hazardous waste at two military industry sites and doesn't explicitly
set aside land for protected plants and animals, conservation groups
charged on Monday.

Officials with landowner Rancho Mission Viejo said the report is only a
general roadmap of development effects and that more detailed analyses
will follow. But critics, who favor restricted development of the land,
contend that it should include at least some mention of soil and
groundwater testing at two former weapons testing sites known to
generate hazardous waste, specifically rocket fuel byproducts such as perchlorate.

"Given the attention paid to perchlorate at other sites in California
recently, it's something we'd expect to be in the draft environmental
report," said Cara Horowitz, project attorney for Natural Resources
Defense Council.

In Ventura, county supervisors last week approved an ordinance requiring
home developers to test for contaminants, including perchlorate, before
building within two miles of the Rocketdyne field lab in the Simi Hills.

Rancho Mission Viejo development officials said that the draft report
was meant to define long-range goals, not specific problems. 

...

for the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-viejo10aug10,1,1114284.story?coll=la-editions-orange 


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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