Lockheed tabs Chicago-based firm as likely developer of Burbank site.

Lockheed Corp. has selected Chicago-based Homart Development Co. as the likely developer of a retail power center on land near the Burbank airport that is the subject of a major toxic clean-up project.

Meanwhile, the City of Burbank has asked the South Coast Air Quality Management District to indefinitely delay approval of a permit for Lockheed to clean up the property's soil using a "vapor extraction system." The city wants time to hire independent consultant scientists to verify that vapor extraction, known as VES, is the best possible technology to use, said City Manager Bud Ovrom.

Lockheed spokesman Keith Mordoff confirmed that Homart in Glendale had been selected as "development consultant" for the property, but he noted that inking plans for actual development would be premature because of the massive clean-up process. Indeed, Ovrom estimated it likely will be 10 years before anything is

built on the most contaminated portion of the site.

Four developers have been competing for the past year or so to be selected to build a 400,000- to 1 million-square-foot outdoor mall on the site.

The entire Lockheed site is about 90 acres and is bordered by Victory Place to the east, Empire Avenue to the north, Buena Vista Street to the west and railroad tracks to the south. Ovrom noted that only one portion -- the area slated for retail development -- will be the subject of intense soil clean-up, allowing for development of other buildings (such as motion picture studios) on adjacent land.

Although the VES would be mostly underground, allowing for surface development above it during clean-up, Ovrom said it's unlikely a developer could find financing for such a project. That is because if an environmental regulatory agency found 10 years later that the vapor extraction system didn't sufficiently clean the soil, it could order buildings since constructed there to be torn down.

Lockheed representatives said they still plan to accommodate building on the property during clean-up, possibly by building around the VES' subterranean pipe system, rather than on top of it.

Lockheed spokeswoman Maureen Curow added that Lockheed is "comfortable" with the city hiring outside consultants.

"We're open to other suggestions," she said. "If an independent study would quell fears, we're all for it."

Residents of Burbank have been expressing concern and outrage over possible contamination of their air with cancer-causing chemicals that would be emitted by the VES' 50-foot-high "smoke stack."

"If there is a better technology, we'll put on whatever pressure we can," said Ovrom. He speculated that perhaps the toxics could be piped away to the city's electric generating plant for clean-up.

At a recent AQMD public hearing in Burbank, Lockheed explained the VES system, and residents complained about health risks. The AQMD explained that the soil must be cleaned of toxics to lessen the possibility of future groundwater contamination.

The VES would include a large carbon absorber vent system, 18 to 20 feet below ground, that is designed to catch 98 percent of the contaminants. The remaining 2 percent -- about 40 pounds per day of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) -- would be released into the air through the spoke stack.

The carbon filters are steamed clean, and the steam is condensed into water vapors. Solvents are extracted from the water and hauled off by recyclers. The remaining water is cleaned again and discharged into the sewer system.

The AQMD staff has confirmed that the risk of cancer from the system would be about 3 in a million, or 9 in a million if the risk from perchlorethylene (PCE) is included. The AQMD rules, which don't currently count PCE emissions, require a risk of less than 10 in a million.

The VES would cost Lockheed about $61 million and would operate for seven to 10 years.

Together with $42 million for demolition and $12 million for site investigation, Lockheed would spend $115 million on the project.

Lockheed manufactured planes on the site from 1928 to 1991.

Attorney David Casselman of Wasserman Comden & Casselman in Tarzana, who represents about 200 Burbank homeowners, said that since the groundwater is already contaminated, the government should perhaps allow Lockheed to forget about cleaning the soil, rather than risk air contamination.

"Why must people breathe these vapors, when the site will still be contaminated after they're done? The water table is already history," said Casselman. "If one person suffers cancer or death, it's not worth it."

Ovrom countered that the contaminated water is being cleaned and re-injected underground and is expected to eventually be used as drinking water in Burbank.

Several residents complained that Lockheed made a lot of money manufacturing planes in Burbank and then left, taking 40,000 jobs with it and leaving the land, water and air contaminated. They said "cancer clusters" (neighborhoods with unusually high rates of cancer) have already developed in Burbank, and they blamed chemicals used in manufacturing.