The Poison Trail to Nowhere?
Is the ground under the now deceased Trail To Nowhere polluted with a toxin that nobody bothered to tell our City Council about?
I don’t know. But I do know that the question came up the other day and has the ring of truth to it.
In the last FFFF post about a bike trail that runs parallel to the now dead Trail to Nowhere, one of our Friends by the name of Observer pointed out the existence of trichloroethylene contamination at 311 South Highland Avenue and provided a handy link to a government website that indicates polluted sites.
Sure enough, 311 S. Highland Avenue is indicated on the map, and this address runs adjacent to the proposed trail west of Highland Avenue. The blue square represents an active contaminated address.
Trichloroethylene (TCE) is used as a solvent for degreasing metal parts during the manufacture of a variety of products. This is really nasty stuff, and was used by manufacturers of circuit boards to clean stray solder and other unwanted material off the boards. Guess what? Hughes used to make circuit boards on this property several decades ago.
Did our crack city staff know about this situation? If they did, they sure weren’t talking. We know that 20 years ago the same folks bought the former UP property without doing any due diligence – which is why the UP Park had to be closed right after construction for remediation of toxins and gained the moniker “Poisoned Park.” Did anybody in City Hall learn anything from that previous disaster?
The test of that question is whether anyone commissioned a so-called Phase I Environmental Study, used to assess potential environmental issues on a given property, in this case, the long, skinny trail site. If they had they surely would have discovered the history of 311 S. Highland, and that it was long ago identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as contaminated. At that point a Phase II study should have been conducted to determine if indeed, the long UP right-of-way was contaminated like the eastern end of the UP property was.
Of course, none of this was discussed at the City Council meetings pertaining to the State grant or the trail design; fortunately Dunlap, Whitaker and Jung made the right decision without knowing any of the back story about the proposed trail’s neighbors.
There is more to be learned about what happened, or, to be more precise, what didn’t happen in this process. Rest assured, our crack team of investigators will be pursuing this issue, and as we learn more we’ll be reporting what we know with the Friends.
Good stuff. And by good stuff I mean bad stuff.
I wonder if Zahra would have been so gung-ho about this if HE knew. Probably. The Charles woman is clueless and probably would have gone for it anyway if Zahra told her too.
The boyz in the White Van. Splendid!
I’m sure Jung and Dunlap didn’t know anything about this. If they had they could have shut up the yammering boohoos in a nano.
Any old lying excuse will do, right? When you have the votes the reason is superfluous.
Maybe we can blame trichloroethylene for your brain damage.
And I wonder if some sort of fraud has been committed by the application for this grant. I would hope the State of California would like to know if it was underwriting a project on contaminated property.
Maybe Sharon Quirk or Sharon Kennedy will hop on this right away.
Of course it’s contaminated. Nobody cared. Another thing they didn’t mention was who is responsible for water run-off onto adjacent properties.
Probably not safe or clean. Due diligence? Fullerton? City Hall is a no-fault safe space.
Cast your memory back to who tried to keep the EPA out of Fullerton’s toxic cleanup mess to shield polluters from liability and then ask yourself if that same person didn’t also later instigate or encourage the trail grant application in order to stifle one development plan in favor of another.
Ling Dude, you’re gonna have to help out. Just initials?
Ah. Jennifer Fitzgerald! The gift that keeps giving!
The evil than men do lives after them, yadda, yadda.
“The good is oft interred with their bones…”
But Fitzgerald never did a single good thing. Fullerton was for sale.
I’ve personally experienced how polluted and unsafe Fullerton is and that there is zero accountability at City Hall or the Police Department.
Why would phony Ahmad do anything but take a well placed photo of himself standing next to the trail, tell us who is to blame, and say he’s the man for the job? Big phony
“fortunately Dunlap, Whitaker and Jung made the right decision without knowing any of the back story about the proposed trail’s neighbors.”
Hilarious. Every bit of their reasoning was faulty as I’ve already established… when someone offers you money to complete a leg of your own long established bicycle master plan YOU FUCKING TAKE IT. Or if you don’t like the long standing master plan you at minimum acknowledge its existence, the diligent work of the parks dept, apologize to them for blowing up their justified and careful work when you should be celebrating an accomplished mission, and then say how you want it changed.
In no reading of the facts is that in any way the “right decision” or the right way.
It’s a total failure. Radically stupid and wasteful.
As to “contamination” it doesn’t seem like that’s an actual issue. Just speculation. No actual facts about the actual UP right of way. Some contamination near by, and you start fabricating new bullshit loaded terminology in an attempt to manufacture facts and consensus that does not exist. Also known as LYING.
Poor Hooger. Defending the poison trail to nowhere.
“It doesn’t serve any function, but it sure is toxic!”
I propose this as the motto for this blog
“Friends for Fullerton’s Future –
We don’t serve any function, but we sure are toxic!”
Projecting, dude.
Why so serious JRH? Your rage is frightening. Why are you such an angry elf?
JRH — you and your loved ones lay in and eat some of the dirt daily. That way we’ll find out if the contamination is just “speculation”, as you claim. You are an entertaining egomaniacal buffoon.
John, you seem like a very angry individual. That emotion is often associated with a closed mind. I think you could profit from some counseling.
I think I don’t know who the fuck you are or why you think I would care about your personal opinions.
Wow. Calm down cowboy. You might direct your energy away from angry outbursts since it doesn’t seem to be helping. Sriously. Help is out there.
Johnny is an angry elf!
For the win!
All I do is win.
There should be a public map somewhere that shows the various toxic plumes around Fullerton. Fullerton is known to have a lot of contaminated properties throughout the City. I’d be willing to bet this trail to no where sits smack in the middle of a plume.