Groups that are purporting to be concerned about high concentrations of toxins in Irvine's drinking water today received a strong rebuke from City Manager Sean Joyce.
Marsha Taylor of El Toro Now!, the group of mostly John Wayne Airport-impacted Newport Beach residents clinging to the idea of a commercial airport being built over the former El Toro Marines Corps Air Station — now known as the future Great Park — has for months been alerting local press, Irvine residents and Marines and their families worried their health problems are related to exposure to deadly El Toro toxins to reports she claims shows the city, the Navy and the Irvine Ranch Water District are conspiring to cover up the unsafe drinking water gurgling underground.
Currently, the El Toro Now! website — just below a solicitation for emails from Irvine residents experiencing health problems and next to the photo here of the Great Park's orange balloon with the words “Great Park Toxic Dump Site Here” Photoshopped in — is “breaking news” about a “shocking memo” from 2001 that claims the contamination plume under El Toro is at least six miles long as opposed to the previously believed three miles long.
The city has hosted presentations by members of its staff, the Navy and the water district to counter what it calls “false claims,” but the stories like the one above keep spreading through town like, well, a toxic plume. So now comes Joyce stepping up with his stern letter to Taylor.
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“Numerous facilities to extract and treat the groundwater contaminated
by trichloroethylene (TCE) originating from the former El Toro Marine
Corps Air Station (ETMCAS) are in place and operating effectively and
safely,” Joyce writes. “As has been stated in the past and thoroughly
documented through water quality testing, the TCE plume from ETMCAS is
not impacting the Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) drinking water
wells. We cannot say this more strongly; the water in Irvine is safe to
drink.
“Your accusations run counter to the wealth of
scientific evidence supporting the safety of the water, and the
credibility of your accusations are greatly diminished because: 1) your
primary sources of information are materials posted by an organization
that has ignored all efforts by IRWD to correct their errors and
misstatements, 2) you ignore extensive scientific evidence and cite
instead an erroneous memo from the Center for Public Environmental
Oversight that contains no proof of the allegations, and 3) you have
refused at least three previous offers to meet and discuss your
concerns.”
(Taylor also refused to meet with the Weekly, saying she prefers to stay in the background.)
Joyce
accuses Taylor of sending e-mails and posting items on the internet
that contain “erroneous information” since July 2008, including even a
“fabricated newspaper article.” Taylor is accused of making
“unsubstantiated health-related accusations regarding the clean-up
efforts at the former ETMCAS.” Attempts by the city and water district
to get inaccuracies corrected have gone unheeded, Joyce claims.
“Since
the plume was first discovered in 1994, the City, the United States
Navy and IRWD have conducted numerous public meetings and met with many
concerned citizens as part of our joint commitment to an open process
with plentiful information,” Joyce writes. “. . . The water provided
by IRWD is subject to extensive testing by State certified water
quality laboratories that must follow procedures set forth in State
law.”
Joyce ends by offering to have the city, the Navy and the
water district meet with her to discuss the plume and the clean-up
program.
The toxic balloon is now in Taylor's court . . .
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.