Officials answer Runkle Canyon toxic claims
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

Following the direction of local resident John Southwick, officials representing the city of Simi Valley and housing developer KB Home visited Runkle Canyon on Monday to oversee the collection of surface water and soil samples from locations a group said last week tested positive for arsenic and other heavy metals.

A caravan of several vehicles entered Runkle Canyon LLC property from the top of Sequoia Avenue a little after 9 a.m., with Southwick and a lab technician from Pat-Chem Laboratories in the lead car to identify locations that were tested previously.

Runkle Canyon LLC is the name given to the joint partnership between KB and Lennar to build 461 upscale residences on a 1,500-acre property along Simi Valley's southern border, a project that received city approval in 1994.

Also along for the July 2 trip were Simi Valley Mayor Paul Miller, City Council- member Barbra Williamson, City Manager Mike Sedell, Assistant City Manager Laura Behjan, county Supervisor Peter Foy, Scott Ouellette, executive vice president of KB Home, and an environmental consultant from TetraTech hired by the city to analyze the lab results when they are received from Pat-Chem in Moorpark.

Various employees of KB Home and Simi, including the city's environmental compliance program coordinator, were among the group.

Pat-Chem, which the city has previously contracted for environmental testing, is the company paid $3,000 by Southwick and fellow Simi residents Terry Matheney, Frank Serafine and Patty Coryell for the original tests, which they said last week revealed elevated levels of poisonous arsenic, as well as nickel and copper.

The lab technician who assisted the residents in the privately funded testing of three locations on the property came along Monday to obtain samples for the city and Runkle Canyon LLC, Behjan said.

"We wanted to make sure the samples were taken from the same areas," she said.

According to Behjan, the city's samples were split and will go to two different labs: PatChem and American Environmental Testing. Results are expected in "10 working days," with another week to analyze those results, she said. Officials from KB also kept a collection of samples for testing.

Asked about Monday's investigation, Miller noted that he brought along a rubber glove to dip in the creek in question- an obvious response to Matheney's assertions that the glove he had used to take samples eventually melted from a chemical reaction.

"Well, I put that rubber glove in the water and it didn't melt," Miller said. "And we have retained that glove in a plastic bag to see if it ever will melt."

Miller and Williamson also noted an abundance of insect and plant life near the locations tested, which KB Home said are located south of the site where the firm plans to build houses.

"We saw lots of bees, butterflies . . . I would think if there was something really toxic in the ground we wouldn't see that."

Southwick said he was pleased with Monday's results, calling the city and KB "very cooperative."

"You could tell that the mayor and Mike Sedell wanted (the testing) to be done correctly," he said. "They did it in such a way that it was fair. Now we just have to wait for the results."

Meanwhile, the city and KB have gone on the offensive about the residents' refusal to provide a complete copy of the original lab results from Pat-Chem that caused such a stir.

According to Keith Jajko, local spokesperson for Runkle Canyon LLC, his employer has only seen what's available on the group's stoprunkledynecom website- two pages of the 17page report"It's hard to comment on an excerpt," Jajko said

Williamson said she was also struck by the residents' refusal. They say the complete report is in the hands of Los Angeles City Beat reporter Michael Collins.

"They're not coming forward and giving us the documentation we've been asking for," she said. "That can only go so far."

"I'm glad we went out and did the testing, I think it's going to shed some light on some of these accusations, but I'm fearful they're just doing this to keep this developer from building, which (KB) has a right to do," she added.

When asked why his group has not provided the entire report to the city, Southwick said the missing 15 pages "don't mean anything. Those are the only two pages that are pertinent."

Southwick said one of the group's reasons for withholding the rest of the document was "to get the city to go out and do its own testing. We knew that if we didn't divulge the other pages, if we only gave them two pages of the original testing, we knew that would make them want to test. And that's exactly what they've done."