Site for BUR replacement terminal deemed safe for passengers, employees

Kids watch a speeding airplane take off during a tour of the Hollywood Burbank Airport.(File Photo)

An environmental consulting firm hired by the Burbank- Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has determined that the preferred site for a BUR replacement terminal is safe for construction to begin.

Authority commissioners voted 8-0 on Monday to approve the findings in a draft human-health-risk assessment by Geosyntec Consultants and to submit the document to the Los Angeles region of the California Water Quality Control Board, the state Office of Environmental Human Hazard Assessment and the city of Burbank.

Commissioner Steve Madison of Pasadena was absent.

Norman Dupont, an attorney with the law firm Ring Bender and an outside legal consultant for the authority, said the report determined that construction workers, airport employees and passengers will be safe at the site, known as the B-6 parcel and located in the northeast quadrant of the airfield.

This past February and March, EFI Global Inc. was hired by the authority to collect soil and soil-vapor samples from 144 locations on the B-6 site, which used to be the home of Lockheed Corp.’s Skunk Works.

Dupont said EFI Global collected and analyzed 74 soil samples, some of which were collected as deep as 25 feet below the surface, and 137 soil-vapor samples.

EFI Global’s findings were then sent to Geosyntec, whose job was to determine if the materials left behind by Lockheed would pose any threats.

Geosyntec concluded that the cancer risk for those involved in the construction of the BUR replacement terminal, airport employees, or passengers was below the minimum level. Dupont pointed out that while the report determined that the materials found in the soil do not pose a health risk to the public, its assessment does not mean no hazardous materials were found.