Jean Yamamura, Santa Barbara Independent
“Caltrans’s digging at Garden Street in 1988 uncovered layers of junk: household waste, metal girders, construction materials, bottles, tires, old newspapers. The county said the site was full of debris from the 1925 earthquake, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) preliminary report, which concluded no toxins were present. By 1995, however, both soil and groundwater in the surrounding area were found to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-VOCs, and lead.
It was a citizen complaint of methane in the area that first alerted the EPA. In 1999, another concerned citizen brought a vial of nasty brown water to Heal the Ocean (HTO) offices, collected from the Garden Street underpass walls during a hard rain. . .”