The Halaco Files

Visit our Halaco Web site for more information and background on the Halaco site.

VenturaCountyStar.com/halaco »

The locked gates, chain link fence, and the big signs warning of the danger of radiation and heavy metals have not been enough to deter trespassers from slipping into the Halaco Superfund site near Ormond Beach.

In recent weeks, police have caught taggers and others who've sneaked into the beachside property in South Oxnard.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency are working on a study for how to best clean up the 710,000 cubic feet of waste left behind. They plan on meeting in the next week with members of the Oxnard Police Department and the property owner to figure out how to best secure the site, said Wayne Praskin, project manager of the EPA's Superfund program.

"We know there has been continuing security problems at the site," said Praskin, who is based in San Francisco but regularly visits the old plant.

Last year, federal officials placed the property on a list of Superfund cleanup sites. Along with the EPA's study, state and federal officials are also conducting a public health assessment to see what risks the site poses to people living and working in the area.

Halaco stands at where Perkins Road dead ends at the beach, and the property includes the massive pile of waste now covered with jut fabric to prevent dust from wafting off it as well as an adjacent collection of aging concrete and rusting metal buildings.

The risks for people who sneak into the site have more to do with the dangers in and around the decaying buildings, which the city of Oxnard has condemned. Demolition of the structures was slated for last year but has been halted because of nesting swallows, said Praskin.

The heavy metals in the waste pile, which is covered, and the low-level radiation buried on the property do not pose an immediate risk to people, according to the EPA.

'Numerous communications'

Halaco shut its doors in 2004 and began liquidating its assets in 2006. The site has been largely abandoned since last summer, when the EPA completed its initial stabilization of the site.

Trespassing has been a perennial issue at Halaco, even when it was in operation. In the past, along with vandals scrawling graffiti on the buildings, kids have come in riding bikes, and homeless people have set up campsites. While the EPA was able to put up a fence around the property last summer and get the property owners to pay for a private security patrol, those measures have fallen off lately, said Praskin.

Part of the problem is that control of the old plant has reverted to the Haack family, the former owners. The development company Alpha & Omega owns the waste pile, which is on the south side of the Oxnard industrial drain and is about 29 acres.

"In the last month or so, we've had numerous communications with the owners through their attorneys," said Praskin. "They've told us they would make daily checks of the facility."

Police catch vandals

But there are signs that vandals have been able to force open boarded-up windows and cut through a gate, and someone also appears to have had a key to a lock on one of the front gates. Those breaches have all been shored up, but recently Oxnard police officers spotted a handful of vandals on the site and caught two, who had paint and equipment for tagging, said Praskin.

Al Sanders, a member of the local chapter of the Sierra Club who has been involved in Ormond Beach preservation issues for several years, has seen people getting into the Halaco property.

"I've seen it many times myself," said Sanders.

"Just a couple of months ago, I was out photographing the moon rise over Halaco and there were these people there sacking out in their little camps."