To the Editor:
Chapter 3 Chevron superfund site.
Well I hope that many of you had a wonderful Easter holiday, mine was good but of course it had the always underlining presence of Chevron. As we stepped outside into our backyard to hunt Easter eggs we once again had the odor of petroleum, a dirty gym locker and bad foot odor. Lucky for us we had plans to visit family else were. The last Chevron meeting was an interesting one, of the EPA letting us know that we are all safe and that they recommend people are not on site 24/7 for 70 years but that it would be o.k. for people to work 5 days a week for 8 hours a day. I hope that no one plans on working overtime or on weekends in the superfund business and industrial park. As they were working on drainage this month they found more dabree (brick pit and stuff) that they are working on. Thus the smell is back. I had a question of concern about the possibility of contaminated soils entering pole creek during our last rains and if they posed a danger to the homes and school down stream and was told by EPA that there was no problem. I was abruptly told by a Chevron rep that it was not possible for that to happen, but as I showed pictures of just that happening another Chevron rep did acknowledge the problem and said that it was taken care of. Yah, on Monday when they started their work week. The pictures were taken Saturday and it rained until Sunday. There were comments on the size of the 20 foot hill behind some of the neighbor’s homes, and their feelings that all was not on the up and up.
I talk with many people about this subject and a retired fireman brought up a new concern to me the other day. If Chevron has its way and we allow them to bring in light industry into this area it may be a big issue one day. Now many of you know this hill on the east side of Fillmore has been known to catch fire about every 5-10 years, now put that with many businesses some of which will no doughtily have permits for a few gallons of toxic or flammable chemicals of all different kinds (since we have no idea who all will be there renting) put these together and we are just asking for trouble. I was told by an official I was talking to the other day that there would be distance from the hill area and the site. Well, I have lived on this street and watch it burn down the hill jump across Pole Creek catch fire in a tree on the east side of Island View and then jump the street and start a fire in my neighbors gutter. So I am thinking this is a serious concern. Now I have been told that I need to accept what is going on and that we the citizens (neighbors) of Fillmore have no say in this, I say we do. What would be best for Fillmore would be to fill the empty lots along the 126 to show we have progress and not that we are struggling. We need to fill the empty business buildings through out our town to boost revenue and after these both have been done first and if our city can support it financially then we should then and only then ponder the idea of the Chevron site plan. It is in my opinion in a poor location filled with fault line issues, ancient mudslide history and on top of a superfund site. Not sure how many people will want to work or bring there lively hood into such an area.
We will be having another meeting tonight Thursday April 24, 2014 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the senior center. We will discuss risk assessments.
Hope to see you there,
Kathy Pace