BELMONT HIGH BIDDER LOWERS THE BOOM.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Staff Writer

The losing bidder for the completion of the Belmont Learning Center has accused Los Angeles Unified officials of short-cutting environmental studies of the controversial project and putting children and staff members at risk.

Komex H2O, one of two teams bidding to complete Belmont, said a full analysis must be done of the 34-acre downtown site before building a protective membrane and gas extraction system on the former oil field to capture potentially explosive gases and toxic hydrogen sulfide leaching from old oil wells beneath the site.

``If this study is not done, you can't design an effective mitigation system that is protective of the school occupants,'' Anthony Brown, chief operating officer for Komex, said in a recent interview.

``Is that a risk children who are going to occupy that school should take? Is that fair to those children?''

But Superintendent Roy Romer and an independent panel hired to assess the bids said the study is unnecessary because state law requires the district to complete a remedial investigation and feasibility study to ensure mitigation efforts are safe and cost-effective.

The school board is expected to vote Tuesday to reverse its earlier decision to abandon the nation's costliest school project and move forward with completing Belmont. The school was left 60 percent complete when work was halted in January 2000 because of environmental concerns.

Last week, Romer recommended that the board proceed with the Alliance for a Better Community, a politically connected firm whose $98.3 million bid was lower than Komex H2O's, which ranged from $111 million to $141 million.

In its proposal, Komex recommended a study of the entire oil field to determine whether a well should be built to relieve pressure of built-up gases.

The study, estimated to cost $3 million to $5 million, would also help the district determine exactly where to install the protective membrane and active gas extraction system.

By contrast, the Alliance bid proposes to forgo the study and simply install the membrane and extraction system beneath the entire site as recommended by Romer and a panel of environmental experts he retained to assess the bids.

But Komex took issue with that mitigation method, which it called a ``presumptive remedy'' that assumes certain conditions exist underground without exploring further and completing a deep-soil study.

Romer, however, defends the district's strategy.

``The conclusion of the technical environmental experts was you do not need the well,'' Romer said. ``We had a preferred remedy in mind. And it was a question of which of the two firms could come closest.''

And he said the district will not increase its liability by not pursuing the study desired by Komex because a remedial investigation and feasibility study is required by state law.

``You do not need to have a study to reduce liability. Liability is based on the kind of solution you ultimately have.''

Romer said he has full confidence in the solution proposed by the Alliance and recommended by the panel, especially because the Department of Toxic Substances Control has been involved in assessing the bids and will continue to be involved during negotiations with the winning bidder.

Hamid Saebfar, DTSC chief of the school property evaluation and cleanup division, said both proposals would be capable of adequately mitigating the site and ensuring that people who work or study there would be protected.

``The district may not need to do the comprehensive oil field investigation if it's going to go with this presumptive remedy,'' Saebfar said.

The point of drilling wells is to relieve pressure from gases. Five wells - four active and one used for monitoring - are located on the site, said Richard Baker, district deputy for the Department of Conservation's division of oil and gas and geothermal resources.

``Do you need another one?'' Baker asked.

Tim Buresh, a member of Romer's panel, also said an additional well is unnecessary.

The membrane will be made of the strongest material available, he said, and along with the extraction system would constitute an ``idiot-proof system.'' Automatic sensors would trigger the gas extraction system and ensure gas pressure would never rise to dangerous levels.

Buresh said the membrane, extraction system and monitoring program would be sufficient to mitigate the site. He said the study proposed by Komex and the well, which could cost millions more to drill, would simply be ``another layer of redundancy.''

And if the pressure were to increase in the future, he said a well could be drilled fairly easily.

He also dismissed Komex's environmental concerns as last-minute lobbying for the job.

``Salesmanship is alive and well,'' Buresh said. ``Certain people compete in certain ways.''

But Brown said that regardless of the board's final selection, a study should be done.

Brown also took issue with the district's troubled bidding process for Belmont, in which the Alliance team was allowed to change certain components of its proposal and a third bidder was disqualified after conflict-ossue questions surfaced.

In a March 4 letter to the school board, Brown raised ethical questions about changing Komex's proposal to comply with the district's recommended mitigation approach.

LAUSD General Counsel Hal Kwalwasser said the bidding process proceeded as planned, with each team called in to interview with the panel to determine which would be most flexible and cooperative if selected for negotiations.

``We asked Komex for some of the same sorts of things and they resisted,'' Kwalwasser said. ``We had some serious concerns with the way Komex's proposal was structured ... They were given the opportunity to respond and they did not.''

Kwalwasser added that the bids remain in the conceptual phase and nothing has been changed.

``The panel simply engaged in discussion with both parties to test if in the negotiations process we thought they'd be open to things that would make their package stronger. But both had an equal opportunity to respond,'' he said.

Before work can resume on the school, the DTSC must approve any plan negotiated by Romer and the winning bidder. Romer also must gain the school board's approval before work can resume on the school.

Saebfar said the bids remain in the conceptual phase. Whichever team might be selected, he said he will be closely monitoring the negotiations to ensure all environmental criteria will be met.

``I don't want anyone to think that a plan is going to pushed through just to meet somebody's schedule. And cost will not be the driving factor,'' he said. ``There will be no shortcuts.''