Received After Agenda Printed
July 25, 2023
Agenda Item No. 10
July 24, 2023
Hello, Jenny,
RE: APPEAL APPLICATION PROJECT FILE #: PA2022-0180 BAYRIDGE/FORD REMEDIATION I spend some time on the agenda for the City Council meeting tomorrow. So much information for them to review to make educated decisions on a multitude of subjects. Impressive and humbling.
The Bayridge/Water Board/Ford remediation plan has been under review with appeals for months, but more information keeps surfacing. In respect to the limited time we all have to read and digest matters, I would like to go on record with two pieces from the LA Times regarding this issue that published ... 33 YEARS apart! Sadly, they indicate Ford's disregard for the land and community.
Bottom line: The proposed remediation location is not safe for residents of the three homes in proximity to the single soil vapor extraction system, carrying vapors via pipes from throughout Bayridge concentrated into one location to clean TCE and PCE soil gases. Both chemical compounds have been linked to cancer and Parkinson's Disease. Please see the two links to articles from the Los Angeles Times.
March 3, 2023
LA TIMES HEADLINE: Is a common industrial chemical fueling the spread of Parkinson's disease? https://www.Iatimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-15/industrial-chemical-may-be-linked-to-parkinsons- disease
Bayridge/Belcourt Terrace are mentioned towards the end. The reporter reached out to Ford and received this statement:
EXCERPT. "Ford believes that access to a healthy and clean environment is a basic human right, including for the residents of Newport Beach," the company said in a statement. "Since 1996, Ford has been working proactively with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board to address volatile organic compounds in soil and groundwater. We have regularly provided updates to the community and will continue to do so.
Because I am in the public relations business, I can say this is 100% PR speak. Although the current Ford management holds the stewardship of "oversights" that may have been made by their predecessors, the company's disregard for the property was noted in the following feature in the LA Times from early 1990—six years before EPA standards brought together Ford and the SA Regional Water Quality Board.
January 14, 1990
LA TIMES HEADLINE: Ford Aerospace Treated for Years Like a Stepchild: Management: The automaker has announced plans to sell its Newport Beach -based unit. But critics say the firm was abandoned long ago. https://www.Iatimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-14-fi-512-story.htmI EXCERPT. From the 1970s through the mid-1980s, the Aeronutronic division was doing extremely well, knowledgeable sources said. One high-ranking Ford Aerospace official said the company was "delivering profits by the wheelbarrow back to (Ford headquarters in) Dearborn," with much of the success coming from lucrative missile export contracts.
But in the past few years, the official said, the company has begun to pay the price for sacrificing plant modernization and other expenditures during the profit -making years: "They look for this year's profits when they should be looking 10 years down the road."
Thank you,
Lee Healy
92 Hartford Dr
Newport Beach CA 92660
[email protected]
949.760.3054