By Bruce Trotman
Although there is no State or Federal law mandating
a specific number of golf holes per capita, Los Angeles County has undoubtedly a
severe shortage of golf courses. Of course we also have a shortage of medical emergency
rooms, public schools, law enforcement officers, etc. However the shortage of golf
courses is apparently so acute that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is
considering building a new golf course on an old unlined and leaking Class I Industrial
Hazardous Waste (think Dow Chemical, Montrose, Union Carbide) landfill smack dab
in the heart of a residential community.
The community, by the way, already
has four golf courses: Los Verdes, Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, and the infamous
Ocean Trails. The proposed project is the South Coast County Golf Course to be built
on the Palos Verdes Landfill.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control,
which has oversight of the landfill, deemed the risks posed by the landfill in its
current stable-though-somewhat- leaky state as being within acceptable threshold
levels as long as conditions remain unchanged. A recent paper review by the Environmental
Protection Agency basically concurs with the DTSC's conclusions while raising several
health issues, including rising arsenic levels off site, that need to be further
explored by the DTSC.
The DTSC and EPA reports put Supervisor Don Knabe,
an avid golfer, in a devil of a sand trap. On the one hand Knabe has, according to
Craig Kessler of the Public Links Golf Association, encouraged golfers to demonstrate
their support for the project. On the other hand Knabe has promised his constituents
in the South Bay that he will allow this project to proceed only if it can be accomplished
safely. And there's the rub.
ESA, the environmental firm hired by the developer
Meritage Rolling Hills Golf LLC to produce the environmental impact report, recently
has published the draft EIR. Buried in a flood of numbers produced by ESA is the
disconcerting fact that this project will increase the risk of death by more than
three-fold. Right now the risk assessment indicates that the site, if it remains
open space, will result in one death per 100,000 inhabitants. If this project goes
forward it will increase to 3.4 deaths per 100,000.
Whether that increase
in risk is tolerable probably depends on where you sit. In explaining the difference
between a depression and a recession an old wag once said, "A recession is when
your neighbor is out of work, a depression is when you are out of work." If
you are a golfer living in, say, Cerritos maybe three deaths in 100,000 in the South
Bay doesn't seem like such a big jump, but if you have a young child attending Rancho
Vista Elementary, Rolling Hills Country Day School, Peninsula Heritage Elementary,
Rolling Hills Methodist pre-school (all schools within a half-mile of the landfill),
or are one of the hundreds of families in Torrance or Rolling Hills Estates living
cheek to jowl with the landfill (some homes a mere 10 feet away from the edge of
the landfill), that tripling of risk is in no way, shape, or form acceptable.
It is not acceptable to me, and I bet it is not acceptable to you either. This is,
after all, a golf course we are talking about, not homeland security.
This
brings us back to Knabe. In the almost two years I have worked on this landfill/golf
course issue, I have not heard one local government leader on the Peninsula nor any
citizen question Knabe's integrity. He is obviously viewed as a man of his word.
Just over a year and a half ago, prompted by the growing apprehension among
many in the South Bay community, Knabe sat down with Liz Brown of Cox Cable for an
in-studio interview and addressed the golf course proposal. In responding to questions
about the community's concerns over the safety of the project, Knabe stated, "If
I felt it was unsafe in any way, shape, or form, obviously I would not proceed."
The environmental firm hired by the project proponent has indicated that the health
risk to the community will be tripled if this project goes forward. It is incumbent
upon Knabe and his fellow supervisors to do what is right for the people of the South
Bay and bring this ill-conceived project on this delicate but potentially deadly
property to an end.
Bruce Trotman is a member of South Bay CARES.
This Op/Ed piece appeared in the Daily Breeze on Sunday December 7, 2003