Parents express anger about toxic landfill near Edison High in Huntington Beach at school board meeting

Facing dozens of frustrated residents at the board meeting Tuesday, June 25, Huntington Beach Union High School District Superintendent Clint Harwick tried to allay concerns from the start about toxic materials being near Edison High.

An environmental consulting firm is conducting extensive tests at a shuttered landfill near the school, Harwick assured the audience. Results will be posted on the district website soon, he said.

“They did some cursory tests first to get summer school open and then they put some canisters out that have some greater readings, and we’re waiting for that report,” Harwick said in his opening remarks.

After a cleanup began in February at the 38-acre Ascon landfill, neighbors complained about dust and fumes permeating their homes. Many attributed flu-like symptoms, rashes, bronchitis and other ailments to the excavation of contaminated dirt.

The project was halted indefinitely on June 6 by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control until dust-control measures can be implemented.

Despite a public outcry, summer school at Edison began on schedule June 18.

Seventeen speakers at this week’s meeting took turns criticizing board members for what they called a lack of communication and transparency.

One woman said she had called and emailed the Edison principal, assistant principals and board members with questions. “I never heard a word back,” she said.

A few speakers  pointed out that most of the board members have served for more than 20 years. To a burst of applause, a woman whose daughter attends Edison said, “If you don’t feel you can help us, please retire.”

Some voiced fears about their children practicing sports on Edison fields, and even demanded that students be relocated permanently.

“My son has participated and enjoyed tennis camp every summer at Edison, but now I don’t feel it’s worth his health,” Elana Greville said.

Others complained about the over all state of the Edison campus.

“I walked around there recently and I was appalled and disgusted,” said Robyn Slader, who herself graduated from Edison. “The pool is a disgrace, the campus is covered in tons of trash. Huntington Beach High is pristine. It’s incredible the schools are in the same city.

“I was blinded by alumni loyalty, but now I am pulling my daughter from Edison,” Slader added. “It has been terribly neglected.”

Compton-based Forensic Analytical Consulting Services has been conducting tests at the Ascon site, Harwick said.

The landfill became a dumping ground for debris from oil fields in 1938 – three decades before Edison High opened nearby on Magnolia Street, not far from the Pacific Coast Highway. Starting in 1971, the site gained abandoned vehicles and construction materials.

Ascon was labeled hazardous seven years after it was shuttered in 1984. The first major effort to clean the site was launched in 2010, with 100,000 tons of tar-like material removed.