Listening to comments and questions made by Huntington Beach City Council members regarding the latest update on the cleanup of the ASCON landfill was confusing and frustrating.
On one hand the City Council seemed incredulous at the scope and magnitude that even partial cleanup of toxic substances contained in the landfill would entail. Choice No. 4, the one that seems most palatable and most often mentioned during the study session, would still not leave the landfill safe enough for human habitation of a residential nature. Council members expressed their fears and concerns for the neighborhoods surrounding the landfill during the removal process. Noise, noxious fumes, toxic dusts generated by the literally hundreds of truck loads of waste materials being trucked daily through our community streets on its way to other landfills that accept hazardous waste. They lamented that this cleanup could take 3 1/2 to 4 years and affect the lives of folks in southeast Huntington Beach who already have lived through the Orange County Sanitation District pipeline construction, the emissions of the AES power generator, the methane leaks into homes and schools. They felt really badly for us. We bear a lot.
