CITY ROLE SHIFTS IN CLEANUP MORE LEADERSHIP ASSUMED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The City Council will no longer remain on the sidelines of the effort to clean up the former Bermite explosives factory, officials said.

For the last nine months, the Santa Clarita City Council has resisted pleas to take a leadership role in the multiagency push to rid 996 acres in the heart of Santa Clarita of 275 toxic chemicals and unexploded ordnance waste, and has instead kept the issue at arm's length.

``To be frank, what we've done in the past hasn't worked,'' said Councilman Bob Kellar, acknowledging the shift. ``Now we'll start doing something that will.''

The council has agreed to create a new subcommittee made up of Kellar and Mayor Frank Ferry to marshal resources and encourage dialogue among the agencies and companies involved with the cleanup of the defunct munitions factory.

``The health of our community is at risk,'' Ferry said. ``We need to get in this game.''

The new subcommittee is expected to be formally approved at the next council meeting Jan. 22, Kellar said.

The city staff is ready to pursue a proactive strategy that sets the agenda and drives a solution, said Planning and Building Services Director Jeff Lambert.

``The council has decided that the city needs to step in, but not to fund the cleanup, which is something the city couldn't afford anyway,'' Lambert said. ``They'll be more hands on.''

The council's new push was welcomed by Connie Worden Roberts, the chairwoman of the Citizens Advisory Group keeping tabs on the cleanup of the property.

``We have to do something dramatic,'' Worden Roberts said.

In April, the council unanimously rejected plans crafted by the city staff that would have had Santa Clarita play a key role in the cleanup, after Councilwoman Laurene Weste vehemently objected.

At the time, Weste said she feared taxpayers would be asked to bear the financial burden if the city took an active role in the costly cleanup of the land near Soledad Canyon Road.

Since then, no progress has been made in the cleanup. Officials from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the agency overseeing the cleanup, said it is likely that the pollution of the area's groundwater is spreading.

The groundwater is contaminated with perchlorate, a rocket fuel propellant. Four wells have already been shuttered because of the pollution.

``We can not stand by and wait for other people to deal with this problem,'' Kellar said.

Kellar and Ferry said the subcommittee would attempt to move forward despite the six lawsuits that have ensnared the project. Those suits have made the search for a solution much more difficult, they agreed.

``We can not afford to litigate this for the next 10 years,'' Kellar said.

In addition, the state attorney general is considering taking action against the property owner, Phoenix-based Remediation Financial Inc., for not making sufficient progress and failing to pay its bills.

The city will pursue a solution that would clean up the property regardless of RFI's participation, Lambert said.

RFI would like to work toward a solution with the subcommittee, said the company's Director of Development Gary Brown.

``There is tremendous potential to solve a great many problems,'' Brown said. ``I'm afraid to sound as enthusiastic as I feel.''

RFI plans to build Porta Bella, a 3,000 home subdivision, a road network and parkland on the site once it is certified as clean by the DTSC.

However, Kellar said the subcommittee would not consider allowing RFI to develop each section of the property as it is cleaned up, nor would it consider some form of public financing for the project.

Without public money and a deal for ``phased development,'' the project is financially not feasible, Brown has said.

``I would hope the city work with us with some degree of trust that we are both working toward the same goal,'' Brown said. ``We both just want to see the property cleaned up.''