BIG GUNS JOIN RANCH FOES CLINTON, GORE, EX-EPA HEAD URGE AHMANSON VOTE DELAY.

Byline: Grace Lee Staff Writer

VENTURA - Opponents of the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development have recruited a cadre of national figures to their campaign, including former President Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore and, most recently, the former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who warned Tuesday of potential impacts of the $2 billion project.

In a second day of hearings that began last week, Ventura County supervisors weighed testimony to determine whether to approve a supplemental environmental report and plans for the first phase of the project, which would include up to 715 homes.

Carol Browner, who served as head of the EPA for eight years, told county supervisors that hundreds more tests should be performed on the contaminant perchlorate, found in a well to be used on Ahmanson Ranch. She said instead of the six soils tests taken on the 2,800-acre site, scientific guidelines required 600 or 700 samples.

``There are accepted protocols for how you do these things,'' she said. ``These have not been done.''

Browner was among several former EPA regulators who testified before the board, adhering to the same three-minute time limit set for state legislators and city officials last week. Her testimony followed on the heels of a phone call by Clinton to board Chairman John Flynn last week, urging him to continue the hearings into January.

Opponents of the project want Supervisor-elect Linda Parks, who opposes the project and who will take office in January, to vote on the environmental report and tract map rather than current Supervisor Frank Schillo, who favors the project.

The development, proposed for the southeast corner of Ventura County, is defended as a source of much-needed housing for the region. Critics have blasted the traffic the project is expected to generate, as well as pollutants and harm to sensitive species at the site.

The supervisors will continue hearings at 8:30 a.m. today. Flynn said the board would begin considering the matter in the afternoon, and it is possible the hearings could be extended to Thursday or beyond.

Browner said the additional perchlorate studies are needed to protect the health of pregnant women, fetuses and young children. The chemical, she said, has been linked to thyroid cancer, mental retardation and diminished IQ.

Tim McGarry, spokesman for the project's developer, Washington Mutual, said the testimony Tuesday was long on emotion and short on facts. He said both sides agreed that perchlorate is a dangerous chemical, but he said that fact is irrelevant because the developer has agreed to clean the well water to drinking standards if it is to be used for irrigation. He also stressed that the company agreed to shut down the well if further testing showed that the chemicals had migrated from the nearby Santa Susana Laboratory.

Browner, who testified along with other former EPA regulators as well as the former general counsel for the agency, said she had been hired as a consultant for Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch. She runs a firm with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

``I'm paid for my time, not my opinions,'' she said.

Chad Griffin, the campaign director for Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch, declined to say what Browner's consulting fees were. He said he would disclose that amount when Washington Mutual submits its own figures.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, also called for more studies to be done on perchlorate. Kuehl, who sits on the Environmental Toxics Committee, said she would write this week to the Regional Water Quality Control Board, asking the board to forbid the developer from pumping water from the on-site well.