BELMONT FIX WOULD BE FIRST OF ITS KIND; STATE OFFICIAL CALLS STEP UNPRECEDENTED.Byline: Greg Gittrich Staff Writer The scope and complexity of the mitigation system needed to open the troubled Belmont Learning Center This Belmont Learning Center contains information about a building currently under construction. It may contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as construction progresses and new information becomes available. would set worldwide engineering precedents for a school, a state environmental official said Friday. Hamid Saebfar, chief of Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Clean-Up Operations for the state Department of Toxic Substance Control, said the size of the nation's costliest school and the shallow oil formation below the site create unusual concerns. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Saebfar, who must approve plans to mitigate environmental hazards 'Environmental hazard' is a generic term for any situation or state of events which poses a threat to the surrounding environment. This term incorporates topics like pollution and Natural Hazards such as storms and earthquakes. at Belmont, there are no other school sites with safety plans in place to address similar problems involving explosive methane gas and toxics. ``There's never been anything like this,'' he said. ``It would be a first.'' Saebfar, however, added: ``Just anything can be fixed. The question comes back to how expensive it will be, what the cost will be.'' The Daily News disclosed Monday that the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. would lose more than $100 million if Belmont were abandoned at this point, according to confidential LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) documents. While the same confidential cost-analysis placed environmental clean-up costs at $16.5 million, members of the LAUSD School Safety Team have argued the tab can't be pegged until more tests are completed. The district has already spent $123 million on Belmont. The final price tag is expected to exceed more than $200 million, not including ongoing maintenance costs for the mitigation system. The school board voted Tuesday to spend $2.2 million to weather-shield the half-completed complex while a newly created advisory commission reviews costs and safety concerns associated with finishing the school. The panel, which has yet to be appointed, is expected to report back to the board by Oct. 15. State officials released a report last week that calls for two months of additional testing and cites 56 areas where information, including historical data, maps and technical documents, needs to be handed over to the state agency. Saebfar must sign off on the safety of the 35-acre site and any mitigation system before the school board could open the school, which stands half-completed downtown on Temple Street and Beaudry Avenue. During a Friday afternoon press conference at the Department of Toxic Substance Control branch office in Glendale to explain the state report, Saebfar said tests given to the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. City Fire Department in 1997 to obtain permits for Belmont were ``incomplete'' and ``inadequate.'' He specifically cited a May 29, 1997 study by Law/Crandall, forwarded to the fire department by Belmont's lead developer, Kajima Urban Development. The report, which concludes methane gas does not pose an environmental concern at the site, ``cannot be considered a quantitative analysis Quantitative Analysis A security analysis that uses financial information derived from company annual reports and income statements to evaluate an investment decision. Notes: ,'' Saebfar said. ``It's quick and dirty,'' he said, pointing out the report relied largely upon geotechnical screening rather than toxicological and environmental testing. A Daily News June 28 report disclosed most of the tests forwarded to the fire department were taken in locations away from the planned site of the school buildings. Saebfar confirmed that analysis. Kajima, which is indemnified from all environmental clean-up costs under its development agreement with LAUSD, did not respond to requests for comment. The state is requiring the district to take a minimum of eight additional soil vapor probes, fifteen chamber tests and two additional rounds of sampling from existing soil vapor probes and groundwater wells. Saebfar said he expects the results from the additional tests and answers for each concern in the report to be forwarded to the state within the next 60 to 90 days. State environmental officials partially halted construction of Belmont in February after determining soil, vapor and groundwater tests conducted before construction began in September 1997 had failed to adequately characterize the site's environmental conditions. A new round of environmental tests Environmental tests are used to verify a piece of equipment can withstand the rigors of harsh environments, for example:
acute moist dermatitis. of carcinogens Carcinogens Substances in the environment that cause cancer, presumably by inducing mutations, with prolonged exposure. Mentioned in: Colon Cancer, Rectal Cancer . |
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