Thursday, October 18, 2007

Lennar is the Bomb...uhh, err I mean they are building on bombs

CF news 13 reports:

Work is starting Tuesday (October 07) morning to dig up dozens of yards in Orange County, Florida to search for old bombs.

On Monday, crews for Lennar Homes spent the day marking the neighborhood that sits on what used to be the World War II era Pine Castle Jeep Range.

All spots marked during the survey will be dug up. More than 50 homes could be affected.
So far, several old live munitions have been found nearby and close to Odyssey Middle School.
The work to find more bombs could take several weeks.


Lennar Homes told News 13 that they will dig up anything made of metal. The company said they are doing it to bring peace of mind to the people who live in the community.

They said it will take about two weeks to dig around 21 homes in the Lee Vista area.
Some people will have to leave the area while the work is going on.
Since July, the Army Corps of Engineers have been looking for bombs after the initial discovery near the school.


Previous article:
A home builder in Orange County (lennar) is searching under homes near Odyssey Middle School for unexploded bombs.
In July, two live bombs were found near Odyssey Middle School and a planned high-tech corridor, prompting a study by the Army Corps of Engineers. The school had been build on top of a former bombing range.
The home builder, Lennar Homes, will be using a machine to go through the Lee Vista Square and Warwick neighborhoods to make sure that there are no old bombs underneath the homes.
The machines are used to detect unexploded bombs that could be underground.
Lennar Homes said it was caught off guard by the news that the subdivision sits on a former Army bombing range. Now, the company is assuring residents they are trying to do everything they can to keep them safe.

What does this mean? In my opinion Lennar (like all of the big builders) rushed into another land deal. Obviously they did not budget to have to dig through all of the land to look for bombs. What a PR nightmare...and in this market. I am glad that someone caught this homebuilders mistake before either a worker or child was harmed. Whooopsie!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

San Francisco City and County
Department of Public Health
Gavin Newsom, Mayor
Mitchell H. Katz, ,Director of Health
Environmental Health Section Rajiv Bhatia, M.D.,M.P.H.
Director of Environmental Health
1390 Market Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, Ca 94102
Phone (415) 252-3800, Fax (415) 252-3875
ARTICLE 31
NOTICE OF VIOLATION
for August 17, 2007
August 20, 2007
Kofi Bonner
Lennar/BVHP, L.L.C.
49 Stevenson St., Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94105
Dear Mr. Bonner:
Based on inspections conducted on Friday, August 17, 2007, the San Francisco Department of Public Health
(SFDPH) is issuing a Notice of Violation to Lennar/BVHP, LLC.
SFDPH staff conducted the inspection between 2:45 and 4:30 pm on August 17th, 2007 at the Hunters Point
Shipyard Parcel A to verify compliance with your approved Article 31 Dust Control Plan. The area of the
violation was the soil storage area behind Building 808 and the haul roads going to and from that soil storage
area. The inspector observed trucks and other equipment dumping and spreading soil behind Building 808 on
the hilltop portion of Parcel A.
The inspector observed two conditions that constitute independent violations of the approved Dust Control
Plan: (1) dust crossing the property boundary to Navy property without effective measures of control (Section
6.2.1) and (2) visible dust for over 90 minutes without effective measures of control (Section 6.2.2).
According to Section 6.2.1., dust crossing the property boundary without immediately implemented effective
measure of control constitutes a violation of your Dust Control Plan. The inspector observed visible dust
crossing the property boundary between Parcel A and Navy Property and the emissions source (dusty roads
and trucks driving on dusty roads).
Section 6.2.2., requires visible dust from soil disturbance or excavation to be effectively controlled within 90
minutes. The inspector observed the site for over 90 minutes. Although limited efforts to control dust,
including watering, occurred in the area of the violation, these efforts were not successful in controlling the
visible dust within the time required period required by the Plan. According to the Plan, the actions resulting in
dust emissions should have been stopped within this time period until effective control practices were
implemented.
Immediate Action Required
Although Lennar/BVHP LLC has been in compliance with the Article 31 dust control plan over the last seven
months, the findings of the August 17th inspection result in the fourth Notice of Violation on the Dust Control
Problems for Lennar/BVHP LLC since the mass grading began in April 2006.
We are therefore requiring that Lennar / BVHP LLC shall suspend all dust generating activities at the project
for at least forty-eight hours in order that you can establish work practices that will prevent future recurrences.
2
Your efforts may include a review of the incident for the causes of compliance failure and training of all
relevant employees and subcontractors on the requirements of the Dust Control Plan. Lennar shall notify
SFDPH when they will be restarting the work effort and describe actions they are taking to prevent future
violations. We ask that Lennar send a letter no later than the end of the work suspension period (a minimum of
forty-eight hours, or longer, if Lennar so chooses) of the actions that were taken during this review period
including at a minimum:
1. Results from the review of incident;
2. Any new work practice procedures implemented by Lennar or its contractors.
In addition, SFDPH intends to use this forty-eight hour time period to establish an SFDPH Dust Control Plan
monitor to provide enhanced and ongoing surveillance of the project. The monitor shall be supervised by
SFDPH staff and the costs for this monitor shall be billed to Lennar based on the mechanism established in the
Article 31. Through this monitor, SFDPH will independently verify that the dust control is meeting all Dust
Control Plan requirements and assist Lennar in adhering to Plan requirements. This monitor will continue to
function in this role until such time as SFDPH determines that the role is no longer needed.
In a few days, we will document and send to you further details of the inspection, including the time periods,
the exact area of the violation and photos of the visible dust. DPH also has the authority to assess penalties
for violations of Article 31. We are determining whether a monetary penalty is indicated for this violation.
Sincerely,
Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH.
Director of Occupational and Environmental Health
cc: Jeff Austin, Lennar
Dave Wilkins, Lennar
Paul Menaker, Lennar
Michael Cohen, MOEWD
Nicole Franklin, SFRA
Marcia Rosen, SFRA
Amy Brownell, SFDPH
David Rizzolo, SFDPH
Mitch Katz, SFDPH
Wayne Lee, BAAQMD
Thomas Theriault, DBI
Bernie Tse, SFDPW
Vicki Dvorak, BAAQMD
Hunters Point Task Force
Saul Bloom, ARC/Ecology
3
References
This inspection report documents an onsite visit and identifies violations of Article 31 of the San Francisco
Health Code. The full text of Article 31 can be found at
http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=14136&sid=5.
The implementing regulations for Article 31 of the Health Code can be found at
http://www.sfdph.org/eh/article31/index.htm
This Notice of Violation is issued pursuant to Article 31, Section 3110 Enforcement Actions, which references
Article 21, Section 1133 which can be found at
http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=14136&sid=5.
Sections of the Dust Control Plan relevant to this violation include:
6.2.1 Visible Dust Crossing the Property Boundary
In the event visible dust from soil disturbance or excavation is observed crossing the property
boundary, the following procedures will be followed to ensure adequate mitigation measures are in
place to address the dust:
􀂃 The specific source of the emissions will be immediately shut down and a more aggressive
application of the existing mitigation measures described in Section 4.0 will be directed.
􀂃 Once the mitigation measures have been applied, the source of emissions will resume and
observations will be conducted to verify that the mitigation measures were successful.
6.2.2 On-Site Visible Dust
In the event visible dust from soil disturbance or excavation is observed on-site, but does not cross the
property boundary, the following procedures will be followed to ensure adequate mitigation measures
are in place to address the dust:
􀂃 A more aggressive application of the existing mitigation measures described in Section 4.0 or
additional methods of dust suppression will be directed to the specific source of emissions
within 60 minutes of the initial observation.
􀂃 If despite these more aggressive and/or additional measures the visible dust emissions
continue for 90 minutes from the time of the initial observation, the specific source of
emissions will be temporarily shut down until the implemented dust control mitigation is
effective or, due to changed conditions, no longer necessary.”