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Foothills Sentry


Chapman University continues cleanup of polluted property after lawsuit with former owners


By Daniel Langhorne A California federal judge re-


cently dismissed a suit brought by Chapman University against the former owners of a university- owned property, claiming nearly 60 years of copper wire manu- facturing heavily polluted the soil beneath the site. Chapman declined to com-


ment on the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of California in 2012, citing a non-disclosure agreement with the property’s for- mer owners. Court records show the case was dismissed in May, at the request of all involved parties. A geologist with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board said in a September 2014 email: “It was our understanding that negotiations were progress- ing among Chapman [and the property’s former owners] for settlement of the costs [estimated at approximately $1.5 million for implementing the approved work plans] associated with the ap- proved scope of work at the site.”


Remediation for rackets Chapman University plans to


clean up the site at 200 N. Cy- press and build a tennis complex. “We look forward to starting the work on the new tennis courts, as that will open the way for our new Center for Science and Technol- ogy to break ground on the site partially occupied by the old ten- nis courts,” said Mary Platt, a uni- versity spokesperson. Chapman’s


existing tennis


courts at Walnut Avenue and Center Street will give way to a three-story science and technol- ogy building encompassing about 150,000 square feet. An environmental consulting


firm, Block Environmental, dis- covered elevated concentrations of carcinogenic toxins above state-permitted levels for a resi- dential development at the former copper wire plant during a 2011 study, according to a report pub- lished by the university. The results of the study thwart-


ed Chapman’s plans to build Filmmakers’ Village, a dormitory building for students attending Dodge College of Film and Me- dia Arts.


In February 2014, Chapman re-


moved contaminated soil from six locations on the property, follow- ing protocol approved by Orange County Health Agency (OCHA) and the Santa Ana Regional Wa- ter Quality Control Board. The university is still cleaning up the site, officials confirmed.


Know nothing Still, some neighbors continue


to harbor concerns. Mario Al- varado, 67, has lived 200 feet away from the polluted property his entire life, and said he is con- cerned about its potential impacts on his health. Alvarado already gets compensation from the fed- eral government because he was exposed to Agent Orange during his service in the U.S. Army. “I’d rather be healthy than get the compensation,” he said. It’s unknown if any of Alvara-


do’s health conditions, which he says include allergies and clogged arteries, stem from the pollution. Residents voiced concerns at a


2014 meeting that the university had failed to place warning signs on the green fence that surrounds the property, which could have notified residents about the haz- ardous material. Anthony Martinez, a program manager with OCHA’s site miti- gation group, said Chapman isn’t required to post warning signs at the property because it poses no threat to the average person walk- ing down the street. He noted that any vapor coming off the site doesn’t pose a real danger because the pollution is most severe many feet underground. “As far as I know, there is no requirement [with] the contamina- tion at this site for [Chapman] to do that,” Martinez said. However, according to the Cali-


fornia Health and Safety Code, businesses are prohibited from knowingly and intentionally ex- posing someone to a chemical known to cause cancer or repro- ductive toxicity without first giv- ing a clear and reasonable warning.


Comes with the territory University officials emphasize


that the pollution was caused by the activities of the property’s for- mer owners.


The California Wire and Cable Company operated a copper wire manufacturing facility on the site from 1922 to 1930. In May 1930, the Anaconda Wire and Cable Company acquired California Wire. In 1934, Anaconda started to


build long-range radio antennas for the U.S. Navy at the property, according to court documents. In the 1950s, Anaconda started to produce aluminum wire on Cy- press Street. In 1977, Anaconda merged


with the Atlantic Richfield Com- pany, and three years later At- lantic Richfield and Ericsson, a Swedish telecommunications company, created a joint owner- ship of Anaconda’s former busi- ness holdings. In 1982, the copper wire manu- facturing business on the Cypress Street site closed. Real estate investors Stephen


D. Massman and Rita J. Pynoos acquired the property in 1990. Before Chapman purchased the property in 1998, it conducted a preliminary investigation that showed no pollution of the soil or groundwater, according to water quality control board documents. Chapman still plans to bring dormitories to Palm Avenue and Cypress Street by building a 400- bed residence hall in the former Villa Park Orchards Packing- house’s parking lot. University officials have said they will first verify that pollution from the An- aconda property has not migrated underground before it moves for- ward on that project.


By Tina Richards The Orange Unified Board of


Trustees agreed to hire three con- sulting groups to assist with the preparation, creation and execu- tion of a bond measure targeted for 2016. OUSD will pay election con- sultants Clifford Moss and As- sociates $78,000; polling con- sultants True North Research, $50,000; and bond counsel Orick, Herrington and Sutcliffe a fee contingent upon the passage of the measure. That is, bond coun- sel gets paid when the bonds sell. The consultants were recom- mended to the board by a sub- committee – Tim Surridge, Kathy Moffat, Rick Ledesma – that in- terviewed, analyzed and weighed the merits of a number of candi- dates. Clifford Moss, a strategic communications firm with a 95.4 percent “win” rate, was the unan- imous choice. They were, Rick Ledesma said, “relatable.”


Ears to the ground Communications consultants


Bonnie Moss and Lynn Davis will help frame a future bond measure by talking and listening to district constituents. “Listening is a lost art,” Moss told the board. “We listen to stakeholders, we under- stand their uniqueness. People support what they help create.” “These people have studied


our community,” Moffat noted, referring to a Clifford Moss pre- sentation chart that broke down the myriad subgroups within the OUSD demographic, and their relationship to each other. “That chart convinced me.”


Tuesday, August 4, 2015 OUSD starting early on 2016 bond Bonnie Moss, who does not


live locally, and Lynn Davis, who does, apparently recognize that voters representing four different high schools may have four dif- ferent opinions about what their schools need -- and those opin- ions will likely differ from those of senior citizens, voters without children, fiscal conservatives or occasional liberals. Their job, they say, is to find out


what facility improvements those subgroups believe the schools need, and what level of support they are willing to provide. The goal is to synthesize diverse wish lists and checkbooks into a palat- able bond measure that a majority of voters will support.


Eyes on the prize Trustee Mark Wayland ques-


tioned their ability to do that. “How can you win when those before you couldn’t?” he asked. During the last bond measure, “the OC Register wrote that we did everything right, but they just didn’t want a bond.” Moss reported that her firm had


a 100 percent success rate with similar bond measures in the last two election cycles. She cited her statewide experience, the benefits of “active listening,” and the need to align the community early on. Lynn Davis also has bond experi-


ence. The Tustin resident is a mem- ber of that city’s school board and as a trustee (not a Clifford Moss consultant), he helped get two bond measures passed in that district. The board vote to hire all three consulting groups was 5-2, with Alexia Deligianni-Brydges and Diane Singer opposed.


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