Irvine residents could soon know more about hazardous materials in their backyard under a new program proposed by city leaders to map and disclose hazardous material sites throughout the city.
The proposal comes after over 50,000 people evacuated in May due to a chemical tank in Garden Grove that emergency officials say nearly exploded, along with another incident in La Habra this month that saw an orange cloud of chemicals hang over the city for hours before dissipating with a handful of evacuations.
[Read: Are California’s Toxic Regulators Strong Enough to Protect Local Neighborhoods?]
Council members are set to discuss the new rules at their meeting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
City council members already ordered staff back in June to make a “preliminary inventory of Irvine facilities handling acutely hazardous materials,” according to the staff report, in which they found over 1,100 businesses using hazardous materials in town registered with the county.
It’s unclear from the city staff report how many of those businesses rise to the level of filing a Risk Management Plan, or RMP, with the county, but they noted only seven of the over 1,100 businesses reach the California Accidental Release Prevention program, which handles “acutely hazardous materials above State thresholds.”
Under that program, any owners or operators that “that handle, manufacture, use, or store a regulated substance above a chemical-specific threshold quantity,” with the county health care agency.
According to city staff, those limits are hazardous materials above 55 gallons of liquid, 500 pounds of solids and 200 cubic feet worth of gas.
Now, staff are suggesting a slate of updates to the city’s handling of these sites, including requiring every facility that handles hazardous chemicals to get approval from the planning commission and institute a new rule requiring anyone living within a quarter mile of a site with hazardous materials receive a notice about it.
Under the city’s existing rules, there are only two zones in the city where people are notified about hazardous materials, including a medical and science zoning district in the Walnut neighborhood and research and development companies in the Northwood neighborhood.
“As written, the Zoning Ordinance is limited in that there are only two planning areas that contemplate notification of property owners and tenants within a one-quarter-mile radius of a use with an RMP,” staff wrote.
Instead, city staff are now proposing that every site with a risk management plan has to notify anyone within a quarter mile and obtain a conditional use permit from the city’s planning commission, meaning the use could be denied.
“By requiring a conditional use permit for uses that require an RMP and expanding the typical public notification radius from 500 feet to one-quarter mile, the zoning text amendment enhances public transparency,” reads the staff freeport. “It also grants the Planning Commission discretionary authority to evaluate whether the proposed use is compatible with surrounding land uses and consistent with public health, safety, and welfare.
In addition to that, the city is also looking to remove some of its more outdated rules on handling hazardous chemicals and compounds, with staff recommending they let the county Health Care Agency and OC Fire Authority handle those since it’s been their job since 1997.
Councilmembers Mike Carroll and Melinda Liu both praised the proposal in separate statements to Voice of OC, with Liu saying it “will allow comprehensive planning and reduce response time,” while Carroll highlighted that it could help protect first responders.
“We have to be ready before an emergency happens, not after,” Carroll wrote. “We’re updating the city’s hazardous materials standards so our Irvine first responders are fully equipped to keep our community safe.”
Mayor Larry Agran and Councilwoman Kathleen Treseder declined to comment while the rest of the council did not return requests for comment.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
