The districts, along with the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund (MALDEF), filed the suit, alleging Title VI discrimination against the school districts' students, a majority of whom are ethnic minorities, largely Hispanic.

Originally, the US Department of Defense decided to close the base in 1991, naming the City of Tustin the Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA) for the base closure. The lion's share of the base's 1,585 acres was in the City of Tustin, with a small portion in the City of Irvine.

The city's reuse plans have evolved over time, but the most recent plan is to build 4,600 homes on 445 acres, a total 9.245 million sf of commercial space on 738 acres, including a golf village, plus rights of way and less federal and private property.

In 1994, the federal Department of Education granted the two school districts, the South Orange County Community College District and the Orange County Department of Education 100 acres of base land to be used for the development of a "Learning Village", a center that would serve the educational needs of children from kindergarten through high school, as well as adults.

The base was officially closed on July 3, 1999 in accordance with the Base Realignment and Closure Act. The plaintiffs are alleging, however, that Tustin has ignored the DOE's land grant all along and the entire 100 acres to the South Orange County Community College district. Instead, Tustin has offered SAUSD 22 acres and RSCCD 15 acres plus $20 million.

The major problem lies in the environmental arena. Ten percent of the base was within the boundaries of the two plaintiffs' school districts. That land is agricultural in nature and untainted. The land being offered by the city, however, is heavily contaminated with Trichloroesthene (TCE), according to the environmental analyses conducted by Dr. Denise Clendening or Arcadis, Geraghty & Miller. Breathing in large doses of TCE is known to cause impaired heart function, coma and death. Breathing in small amounts can cause dizziness, headaches, poor coordination and difficulty concentrating.

"We cannot fathom why the City of Tustin, knowing the toxic issues on the base, would develop a land use plan that allocated the cleanest property to the uses that require the least environmental cleanup and places Santa Ana's children and teachers at risk on highly toxic land," says attorney Edmund Connor. "The only conclusion we can draw is that the City of Tustin does not want the largely Hispanic children from Santa Ana in their city."

According the company, the state's environmental cleanup standards are far less stringent for commercial development than they are for potential school sites. This site is so contaminated, the release states, that it would take millions of dollars and many years to meet those standards before a school could be built.

Instant Insights /

Racial Discrimination Alleged in Contaminated Land Case

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