Not everyone is rooting for the county’s CUPA appeal

EL CENTRO — Two environmentalists are among a group who oppose the Imperial Fire County Department becoming the region’s Certified Unified Program Agency and have issued a 14-page response to the California Environmental Protection Agency regarding the county’s recent appeal of the agency’s rejection of the fire department’s application in March.

The CUPA oversees regulatory issues related to hazardous wastes and underground storage tanks in businesses throughout Imperial County.

Since 2005, the Department of Toxic Substances Control has been designated as the region’s CUPA and is responsible for implementing regulatory oversight.

Edie Harmon, who submitted the 14-page response, said she thinks the DTSC is the right agency for the regulatory oversight because it is not linked to the county, so the oversight committee would not feel pressured in any way to come to a particular finding.

“I just don’t think that the county has staff or the training to do this,” she said.

She added she thinks the county could be biased toward businesses and other industries being investigated.

She also questioned why homes are allowed to be built on the banks of the New River or to allow a Feed Yard in Heber to be built next to a school.

“I don’t understand some of those things,” she said, adding in her 42 years of living in the county, there have been decisions made that put the health of residents at risk.

Ryan Kelley, chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, said two members of the fire department’s staff have completed most of the CUPA training and would finish before they would be conducting CUPA inspections. Furthermore, CUPA inspectors with DTSC, which operates out of offices on Wake Avenue, would be welcome to seek employment with the county to continue as CUPA inspectors. The positions would be self-sustaining as CUPA is a revenue-generating program, he said.

As for playing favorites, Kelley observed various county departments, including planning, fire and public works, already conduct regular inspections involving public safety.

“We’re performing many of these functions every day,” he said. “We are saying we can take this over and do it more efficiently, more responsively and more cost effectively.”

Testimony at a public hearing held before CalEPA here on July 17 was overwhelmingly in favor of the county fire department being the CUPA.

Harmon, who has opposed the fire department from becoming the CUPA since the beginning, said she thinks the CUPA request was not done properly done by the county.

However, she acknowledged the public hearing appeal was well organized by the county, with so many public comments supporting its position.

Lillian Garcia, another opponent of the county’s CUPA appeal, mentioned an incident last year when a county supervisor, namely Kelley, tipped off the community to a pending series of surprise inspections by DTSC. She recalled Kelley said he did not think there should be surprise inspections, so he let businesses know they were coming. He later said he would do it again, she added.

“Yes, that was me,” Kelley said. He explained that the board had gotten wind of the environmental sweeps in January 2018, and Kelley announced them to the community during a March 2018 Board of Supervisors meeting.

“I would do it again,” he confirmed, saying he believes the objective of inspections is to promote compliance, not punishment. “Education and information can get businesses into compliance faster than a hammer and a knife,” he said.

Supervisor Ray Castillo said he does not know whether inspections should be scheduled with businesses or not, adding that if the appeal is successful, the county should look at what other communities are doing. Garcia said a problem exists. “There has been pollutants for the last 10 years in the Imperial Valley, but a lot of people are not aware of the environment because they are just so used to it,” Garcia said. “There are a lot of conflicts (of interest). There are things in Imperial Valley that need to be controlled.

“It just seems that in Imperial County it is a different animal,” she said.

Castillo pointed out that the county is not trying to anything that is new.

“Ninety percent of the counties in the state of California have the investigations done by a county agency” he said.

More precisely, 56 of California’s 58 counties have their own CUPA.

CalEPA will make its ruling on the county’s appeal by Monday.