MCKEON FILES FOR FED FUNDS BERMITE CLEANUP TARGETED.Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon wants the Department of Defense to contribute $7 million toward the cleanup of the former Bermite explosives factory. About 275 chemicals left over from decades of munitions mu·ni·tion n. War materiel, especially weapons and ammunition. Often used in the plural. tr.v. mu·ni·tioned, mu·ni·tion·ing, mu·ni·tions To supply with munitions. manufacturing by Whittaker-Bermite pollute the property. Cleaning the site, which is also littered with unexploded ordnance "UXO" redirects here. For the cancelled video game, see . Unexploded ordnance (or UXOs/UXBs, sometimes acronymized as UO) are explosive weapons (bombs, bullets, shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, etc. waste, and ridding the area's groundwater of perchlorate perchlorate: see chlorate. has proved a complicated, drawn-out and expensive undertaking. ``The U.S. military derived the benefit from decades of munitions testing at the site, and it is only appropriate that we fulfill our responsibility in cleaning it up,'' McKeon said. Earlier this year, McKeon requested $5 million for the clean-up effort from the Department of Water and Energy. That legislation is still pending, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. David Foy, a spokesman for the Republican congressman. Last year, McKeon obtained $3 million for the clean-up effort. Another bill pending in the House would earmark earmark taking a piece out of the edge or center of the ear with a punch as an identification mark. The shape of the mark may be registerable under local legislation. $200 million a year for the cleanup of ``brown fields'' - former industrial sites that are polluted. The bill would also encourage developers to build on such areas, like the former Bermite site, by insulating them from future lawsuits in federal court. ``The congressman will certainly do everything he can to make sure Santa Clarita gets as much as possible for Bermite if this bill passes,'' Foy said. President Bush and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt have endorsed the bill, which passed the Senate in April. Cleanup of the area's groundwater is expected to cost as much as $35 million, according to local water agency officials. Work on the 1,000 acres in the center of Santa Clarita has slowed because property owner Remediation Financial Inc., of Phoenix and developer Santa Clarita LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control have run out of capital for the project - and face $476,076 in overdue, unpaid bills from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the agency overseeing the cleanup. State and city officials say that having a private landowner willing to clean the land is a huge step in reclaiming the old Bermite property. Jeff Holm, the project's planning and development director, said that unless the Santa Clarita City Council allows the company to develop each section of land as it is cleared by the DTSC DTSC Department of Toxic Substances Control DTSC DARCOM Technical Steering Committee , it will not be able to raise any more money to complete the project. DTSC officials say phased development is a safe and effective way to clean polluted former industrial sites. ``One of the hangups is the phasing issue,'' he said. ``Clearly, we've got issues ahead of us.'' Daily News staff writer Patricia Farrell Aidem contributed to this story. |
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