Salem-News.com Irvine articles

Congressional Investigators Say Toxic Military Base Health Hazards Were Overlooked

Former assurances to Marines over health concerns related to Camp Lejeune are off the table; the feds now say the notion that Marines will remain cancer free, is false.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - It was just less than a year ago when we began investigating and reporting on the contamination of Marine Corp bases in North Carolina and Southern California.

Now there is a new President with new environmental policies, and the historically reluctant flow of data on these environmental disasters appears to be increasing.

`Larry Agran, Great Park Gangbanger: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?`

Or "Larry (What, me worry) Agran: The Lesser of Feebles?"

(LAGUNA BEACH) - Larry Agran's dream is turning out to be Orange County's nightmare. Costs soaring, the promised pollyanna tax revenue for the County diving, it just gets worse by the day. The contaminant cleanup budget soars, removal progressing slowly and ineffective for water-borne pollutants migrating region-wide. Little or no preemptive risk assessment, no contingency or fallback strategy. No Plan B, Just Plan A(gran).

We need an OC Grand Jury intervention, and like Watergate, let's have the OC District Attorney's Office follow the money.

Irvine's chosen developer, Lennar Homes, has a decades long reputation and fiscal nationwide history rife with horror stories, vendor mischief and LLC bankruptcies, yet it continues to do business in spite of its ineptitude and lapses.

Deadly Toxic Chemicals from El Toro Marine Base Affect Woodbridge in Irvine

The Internet is allowing the truth about this contaminated and closed down Marine air base to move into public view. Sign the petition to help Marines, the link is at the bottom of this article.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - A Salem-News.com series that began May 1st 2007 about deadly toxic contamination at the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, California, seemed like unwelcome news at the time to City of Irvine officials and also the public representative for the Irvine Ranch Water District.

Loose lips do sink ships, but so do plenty of other things. The ship in this case, was a huge development project planned by Lenar Homes that would have turned the dangerously polluted base into an upper end housing community and public park.

Construction ground to a halt and the base is now being used to store automobiles.

TCE Expert Talks With Former El Toro Marine About Toxic Waste (VIDEO)

This is the fifth video in a continuing series about a deadly chemical dumped into the groundwater by Marines at El Toro that is moving in the water tables beneath neighborhoods in Irvine, California.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - Lethally toxic chemicals were dumped into the groundwater over the decades at the now closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, California. Marines and their family members have become sick over the years and the health problems can be passed on generationally. TCE, (Trichloroethylene) is known to cause liver failure, several types of cancer, mutations and intestinal disorders.

In this interview, Dr. Phil Leveque, a highly regarded toxicologist in Oregon, talks about this chemical manufactured by Dow Chemical, TCE, that was used to clean jet fighters at the El Toro Marine Air Station, and ultimately dumped into the water system.

Contaminated Marine Base in Irvine Slated for Public Park and Community Development (VIDEO REPORT)

This is part four in a continuing video news report series on TCE chemical waste stemming from the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - A veil of secrecy seems to cloud and obscure the real facts behind the closure of the El Toro Marine air base. Documents from the Navy confirm that El Toro is a hazardous waste zone. It is not new information, an environmental cleanup project has been underway for some time, but the extent of the problem and the distance the toxic contamination has traveled from the base is a serious issue, particularly for the Irvine community of Woodbridge.

For years, aviation crews at the base used a chemical degreaser on jet fighters called TCE that was disposed of hap hazardously, often poured straight onto the ground after use. In spite of this public information, city officials in Irvine, California, say the air station that was closed in 1999, will be a great location for a new park and housing development.

Memories of the El Toro Marine Air Base: a Modern Day Ghost Town

This feature is part of a series report on contamination at the El Toro Marine base; it includes a special slideshow presentation.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - The sound of afterburners from fighter jets soaring into the California sky over the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station have been silent for almost a decade. They are replaced by an eerie silence that envelopes the looming buildings and hangars.

I have many memories of my time as a Marine at this place and they have been flooding back over the last several days as I've spent time here investigating a massive hazardous waste situation created when the Marines dumped massive amounts of TCE- Trichloroethylene, into the groundwater. Contact with the potent chemical degreaser can quickly turn fatal.

Deadly Toxic Chemicals From Marine Base Threaten Irvine Neighborhoods (VIDEO REPORT)

A legacy of deadly, hazardous waste from a closed Marine air base is quietly invading parts of Orange County, California. This is Part 3 in a continuing series of video reports on Salem-News.com.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - Toxic waste from the now-closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine is seeping underground into one of the richest neighborhoods in southern California, putting people at risk.

Orange County residents who have been studying the issue for the last several years say developers intent on changing the old base into a multi-million dollar park and housing community, have not come clean; they haven’t revealed the base’s dirty secrets to people investing their hard earned money here, and in nearby areas that sit squarely on top of an underground plume of TCE- Trichloroethylene.

Irvine, California Threatened by Contaminated Water From El Toro Marine Base (VIDEO REPORT)

What happens when wealthy Republicans suddenly find out that the home they invested so much in, could be sitting on top of one of the most dangerous, polluted places in the nation?

(IRVINE, Calif.) - A number of government agencies deny that the city of Irvine has big, big problems from TCE, Trichloroethylene; a toxic chemical used in the maintenance of Marine Corps jet fighters at the former at the Marine Corps Air Station. They reject the notion that the TCE has penetrated the groundwater here and as a result, is a serious health hazard for residents in Irvine, California.

But large amounts of evidence tell another story.

Reports from the U.S. Navy indicate that TCE contamination stemming from the Marine base at El Toro is in fact a huge issue in this part of Orange County.

El Toro Water Contamination Reports Will Continue

Technical delays have slowed down progress but a number of reports will soon be posted.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - I have spent the last several days in the area of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in what is now Irvine, California, investigating the status of the water contamination that stems from the former air base.

For those who not familiar. El Toro, in the heart of Orange County, California, is an EPA "Super Fund" site and contamination in the groundwater here is connected to TCE- trichloroethylene, perchlorate and other chemicals. The base is being developed into a public park under the "Great Parks Corporation" in Orange County and also is the site of new home construction.

Irvine, California's city staff says it is the safest city in America, but mounting evidence from a number of sources including the Navy and the EPA, tell a story of decades of environmental abuse. A "plume" of TCE has traveled several miles from the base and now occupies an area in one of California's most affluent neighborhoods.