Ahmanson Ranch project inches closer to approval
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

A Ventura County planning committee approved a new supplemental environmental impact report on the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch last week, despite reports that a potentially hazardous chemical was discovered in one of the development’s water wells.

The supplemental environmental impact report passed on 5-0 vote and now goes before the county planning commission and board of supervisors for final approval.

Supervisors approved the 2,800-acre development north of Calabasas in 1992, but ordered a more thorough environmental study seven years later when the site was found to be the home of the endangered San Fernando Valley spineflower and the California red-legged frog.

While testing a well on public parkland in the southwest corner of the development, officials discovered significant levels of perchlorate, a toxic substance known to cause thyroid problems.

The planning committee told Ahmanson Ranch developer Washington Mutual the well might have to be shut down if it’s shown to be connected to a polluted subterranean plume seeping from the former Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley. Perchlorate is used to make rocket fuel, among other products. Officials found 28 parts per billion in the well, seven times the state standard.

The well is about 1,000 feet from the project’s nearest homes. "The mere presence of perchlorate in one sample of Well No. 1 is hardly sufficient to establish any connection to Rocketdyne," said Tim McGarry, Washington Mutual spokesman. "One can’t rule it out, but establishing a connection to Rocketdyne is scientifically unsupported."

The state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board said it’s looking at the matter.

According to the board’s Melinda Becker, "Perchlorate is very water soluble and more mobile, and tends to leave the plume."

But McGarry contends the Santa Susana and Ahmanson Ranch underground aquifers lead in different directions. McGarry said Ahmanson Ranch would monitor the well and bring the perchlorate to within safe levels.

"If that monitoring indicates that there are other components that suggest there is contamination from Rocketdyne to the water table underneath Ahmanson Ranch, we will cease drawing water from that well and close the well," McGarry said.

The well would be used for irrigation purposes only and not drinking water, McGarry said.

Ahmanson Ranch will obtain recycled water supplies from the Tapia treatment facility in Calabasas and doesn’t have to rely solely on the well water, McGarry said.

According to a 2000 study by Kleinfelder, Inc., a Los Angeles environmental engineering firm, trace levels of radiological and chemical compounds from the Rocketdyne laboratory may have filtered into the soil and groundwater near Ahmanson Ranch, but no contamination could be found that could be considered a threat to public safety.

Located less than three miles north of the proposed development, Rocketdyne spent decades conducting rocket engine, nuclear reactor and other research for the Department of Defense, NASA and the Department of Energy.

Compounds that were found during the cleanup of the site included arsenic, cobalt, chromium and lead, but the report said the levels easily met state and federal environmental standards. Plutonium wasn’t found in the soil, and plutonium and uranium found in the ground water fell within "acceptable levels."

Save Open Space, an Ahmanson opponent, protested the development’s well water rights in a 1999 court case, but lost.

And a new lawsuit was threatened last week by the city of Los Angeles. Mayor James Hahn announced the city would consider legal action to prevent the supplemental environmental study from being approved.