Water agencies investigate possible violations in East Orange
Frank Shyong
The Orange County Register
07/25/2011
Two water agencies are investigating the possibility that contaminated groundwater was pumped into Santiago Creek at a concrete recycling site in East Orange.
According to Michael Adackapara, division chief of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, an inspector found several potential violations on a July 15 trip to the site, including pumping groundwater without a permit. Adackapara said the other violations were minor.
Large piles of dirt mount at the Sully-Miller site in Easy Orange visible from East Santiago Canyon Road. Site managers say they're performing a backfilling operation to fill in large holes with dirt, cement and asphalt for the purposes of stabilizing the land's foundation.
The agency hasn't made a final ruling, but a preliminary report detailed a pumping operation that moved sediment-laden water out of large basins into a gathering pond, where the water was pumped into an on-site inlet.
The inspector said in the report he could not determine where the inlet drained.
Steve Kane, a manager at Material Transport Services, the company working on the site, said they are pumping the water into Santiago Creek. The creek flows into the Santiago Pits, where water seeps into a groundwater basin where much of the city of Orange gets its drinking water.
Orange County Water District officials say that any contamination from Santiago Creek would probably be small and have no immediate effect on drinking water supplies, depending on how long the pumping has been going on. According to Gina DePinto, a spokeswoman for the district, inspectors will be checking for potential contamination at monitoring wells along the creek's path sometime this week.
Sully-Miller, as the property is known, is a 116-acre property on East Santiago Canyon Road between Cannon Street and Orange Park Acres Boulevard. It has housed everything from a sand and gravel mine to an asphalt plant.
John Martin Investments purchased the property in 2008 and intends to build a luxury 100-plus-home residential development on it, according to its website, Riosantiago.com.
The company leases the property to Hansen Aggregates, a concrete-recycling facility, and Material Transport Services, the company that is the source of the alleged violations.
According to City Attorney David Deberry, Material Transport Services has been performing what's called a backfilling operation. Kane said they are filling large holes with concrete and asphalt to stabilize the property's foundation.
The duration of the operation is unknown, but the city issued a grading permit to the company on March 15. Deputy Public Works Director Frank Sun said he has visited the property multiple times and said that the work falls within the scope of activities described by the grading plan submitted by the company.
But pumping groundwater into a creek requires a special permit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Kane claims that they have been pumping rainwater that has collected in on-site pits, a practice which does not require a permit.
