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Exclusive!
La Habra Heights, CA – An investigation is under way as to whether Los
Angeles County Public works employees or officials authorized the dumping
of hundreds of cubic yards of contaminated fill on a vacant lot East of
Harbor Blvd in the City of La Habra Heights.
The lot, owned by Los Angeles County Flood Control, is located immediately
adjacent to the newly purposed Puente Hills Significant Ecological Area
“SEA”. The County’s flood control maintains numerous storm drainage
inlets in the area as well as maintaining debris basins within the La
Habra Heights area. County public works crews working out of a location
know as the 446 Yard in unincorporated Whittier use the vacant lot to
stage equipment.
Aerial views available by GIS and other Internet map providers show the
lot looking more like a dumping site.
So much so that when we
asked Los Angeles County Public works Supervisor Lonnie Brown, he
responded by saying the “area does look like a dump site”.
Mr. Brown was responding to our
inquiry as to whether public works personnel or officials have any
knowledge of illegal dumping occurring on the County controlled lot. This
after a truck driver who was photographed dumping at the site and a
contractor at a residential construction site East of Harbor Blvd in
unincorporated Los Angeles County stated that a County Works employee
authorized them to dump on the County’s property. Neither of them would
identify themselves nor would they provide the name of the public works
employee that granted them permission. They both also stated the gate
leading to the site was unlocked by the county employee earlier that
morning. “No public works employee opened any gate” said Mr. Brown. He
went on to say that no one is authorized to dump any material on county
property and in fact his crews had recently been at the lot cleaning up
illegal dumping and “dragging” (grading) the property.
Mr. Brown suggested contacting two other agencies, Los Angeles County
Flood Control and the Baldwin Park office of LA County Public Works.
Neither
could be reached by press time. Mr. Brown went on to say that any
material that contains rocks, asphalt, trash and weeds must be taken to a
dump facility. Brown, who has been with the “446 yard” for only a few
years, could not explain how or why the other hundreds of yards of waste
material dumped at the site was allowed to accumulate.
More on that in part two of our exclusive report.
Story by: George
Edwardz
www.theavocadoexpress.com
Readers are advised to stay informed by following us on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/LaHabraHeights
Click to View exclusive video of
illegal dumping on LA County Site.
EOM
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