CITY BALKS AT KEY ROLE IN CLEANUP AT BERMITE.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The city will take no formal role in cleaning up the defunct Bermite munitions factory, choosing instead to hold a community meeting to brainstorm for solutions for the complicated and controversial project.

The city staff asked the City Council on Tuesday night to provide direction for a plan to clean up all of Santa Clarita's polluted industrial properties and to take a more active role in cleaning and developing the 1,000-acre Bermite property.

``We should keep this project at arm's length,'' said Councilman Bob Kellar. ``The city should take no action that increases the risk and liability for the residents and taxpayers.''

City Manager George Caravalho told the City Council that he was frustrated by the slow pace of progress on the cleanup, which is being overseen by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, and wanted the city to take a more active role.

The council instead voted 5-0 to host a meeting and hold off on any other action. While the council agrees the site must be cleaned, only Councilman Frank Ferry said perhaps the city should be involved.

``It is premature to do much of anything,'' said Councilman Cameron Smyth. ``There are so many unknowns.''

Caravalho will report back to the City Council in 60 days on the brainstorming effort.

The city believes that the best way to clean up the land is to partner with developer Santa Clarita LLC and provide some kind of public financing. Santa Clarita LLC, cleaning the land to build a 3,000-home development called Porta Bella, wants permission to build portions of the project as sections of the land are certified clean by the DTSC. Such a system would keep money coming in to finance continued cleanup and likely is the only way the property ever will be restored, city officials have said.

Several residents, most of them members of the Citizens' Advisory Group that is keeping tabs on the project's process, said the city should not participate in the cleanup of 275 chemicals left over from decades of munitions testing on the site, which is also littered with unexploded ordnance waste.

``We want the site cleaned up, but we don't want the liability,'' group member Adam Ford said.

City Attorney Carl Newton told the City Council that he has been negotiating a confidentiality agreement with lawyers for Santa Clarita LLC that would begin the process of adding the city to the company's insurance, and protect it from litigation stemming from the pollution.

Remediation Financial Inc., the developer's parent company, is concerned that adding the city to its insurance would harm its efforts to defend itself in a lawsuit filed by the Castaic Lake Water Agency, Newton said.

That suit seeks to force Santa Clarita LLC to immediately begin cleaning the area's ground water of perchlorate, a byproduct of rocket fuel linked to thyroid problems, which forced four municipal wells to be shut down.

If no agreement is reached and Phoenix-based RFI does not indemnify the city, that would violate the company's development agreement with the city, Newton said. About 3,000 homes along with a school, park, open space and businesses are slated to be constructed on the former industrial center.

DTSC continues to investigate the size and scope of the pollution plume in the water. Last week, agency officials said they had plans to drill at least two wells near an area where perchlorate, which dissolves in water easily, was found in the soil.

The wells will help determine whether an earthquake fault that traverses the fault has sped the pollution throughout the site's ground water, or prevented it from moving farther, said Ken Baez, the project manager.

That investigation should be complete by July, Baez said.