Environmentalists and residents in Escondido are raising concerns about a neighborhood project to build homes near the Chatham Brothers Barrel Yard, a notorious hazardous waste cleanup site.
Ahead of a Wednesday evening vote, they hope the Escondido City Council will consider their concerns, including a report by a hydrogeologist residents hired that suggests the city and property owner conduct more thorough testing.
The project would turn a long-vacant six-acre lot on the southeast corner of Hamilton Lane and Bernardo Avenue into five single-family homes and a stormwater basin. Lee Duran, who serves on various boards and commissions in San Diego County, including San Diego Coastkeeper, is the property owner pursuing the project.
The Escondido Planning Commission approved the project earlier this year in a 4-1 vote. Heidi Whitman, who lives directly across the street from the project site, is appealing the Planning Commission’s approval before the City Council.
“Our biggest point is we’re not trying to stop housing development,” said Whitman. “We’re asking that the environmental review match the complexity of this site.”
In 1982, the state became aware of toxic pollution, such as trichloroethylene and benzene, leaking into the soil and began remedial activities. The yard opened in the early 1940s and operated as a waste oil and solvent recycling and bulk petroleum facility.
State officials have said cleanup efforts through the years have helped. Groundwater monitoring shows contamination levels have been non-detectible, and that the plume does not pose a significant health risk.
A report by Scott Snyder, the hydrogeologist hired by concerned residents, shows that levels near the project site have increased slightly.
“On the Chatham remediation site, some wells that have been sampled over the past six years (2020 to 2025) have shown concentration trends that are not stable,” he said in his July 24 report, adding that a well “located immediately upgradient of the project site, had a decreasing trend from 2020 to 2024, but concentrations from samples collected in 2025 has shown an increase in concentrations.”
Dan Weis, who Duran hired as the project’s environmental consultant, said the increases in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentrations detected as early as last year are “unremarkable” and are below “the drinking water standards.”
The levels directly beneath the project site are unknown because there have been no monitoring wells on site. Weis said the monitoring well that sat on the project site was removed by a former landowner several years ago. He acknowledged that, historically, concentrations of groundwater contaminants in that on-site well were “pretty high. They were in the several thousands of micrograms per liter.”
Acknowledging residents' and environmentalists’ concerns, he said groundwater testing is not the landlord’s responsibility.
“That's a Chatham Brothers issue. It's Chatham Brothers’ contamination,” Weis said.
Weis tested soil at a two-foot depth and soil vapor at a five-foot depth on the property after Whitman submitted her appeal.
“There were no contaminants of concern identified in the soil,” said Weis. “We kind of expected that going into it as far as the shallow soil gas, and there were no detected concentrations of volatile organic compounds.”
Weis said he plans to present his findings before the City Council “why the science and the regulatory authority and oversight lead us to believe that this site is safe to build on and also leads us to believe that all the residences around it are safe to live in because if they weren’t, there would be significant action being taken … as mandated by the Department of Toxics,” he said.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which oversees the barrel yard remediation, did not respond to a request by KPBS for comment by deadline.
Whitman, the Sierra Club San Diego North County Group and the Escondido Neighbors United argue that the city and property owner conduct a geotechnical study before construction is approved.
“I’m going to be, hopefully, starting a family here soon,” said Whitman. “And that is one of the concerns that I have, is, you know, health and safety with VOCs. And that is exactly why we're arguing for full transparency before soil is dug up.”
The City Council meeting begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Anyone can make a public comment in person or online on the city’s website.
