This is Part 2 of a series
In quiet neighborhoods, lined with single-family homes, Canoga Park and Winnetka residents may unknowingly be sitting atop dangerous toxic chemicals just 20 feet below ground.
Homeowners Jed and Alisia Behar learned they lived above a contaminated groundwater plume at a Winnetka Neighborhood Council meeting.
When attorneys from The Lanier Law Firm showed a map of the contaminated area, Jed Behar, who was usually a fly on the wall, perked up.
“I recognized the map right away – I was in it,” said Jed Behar.
“How do I stop this?” he thought. “What are my options to remedy this situation where there’s a toxic plume underneath my house?”
The Behars decided to take on the role of class representatives in the class action lawsuit, Behar et al. v. Northrop Grumman Corporation et al.
The lawsuit filed against Northrop Grumman, a United States multinational aerospace and defense company, claims that over time dangerous toxins emitted from Litton Industries, Inc., a local facility acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2001, contaminated the groundwater under more than3,200 properties in mostly neighboring residential areas.
The plume, or mapped area of contaminated groundwater, is now 2.4 miles long and 1.8 miles wide – nearly double the size of some small towns like the City of San Fernando.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs maintain that Northrop Grumman has not dealt with the contamination since acquiring the facility 23 years ago and have actively downplayed the severity of the problem to residents.
Homeowners are calling for Northrop Grumman to mitigate the contamination and are asking for financial compensation for diminished property values.
“I want to make sure that I can sleep comfortably knowing that there are no toxins coming into my home or hurting my family,” said Jed Behar.
How Did This Happen?
From 1968 to 1970, Litton Systems manufactured printed circuit boards and conducted related operations including copper plating, silk screening, photo printing and chemical stripping, at a facility located at 8020 Deering Ave. in Canoga Park.
Toxic chlorinated solvents, including trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE), known to increase the risk of cancer and birth defects, were used during the production process.
Contamination from Litton’s production was first discovered on the site in the late 1990s.
Northrop Grumman acquired Litton and the site in 2001. Since then, environmental testing has revealed unsafe levels of carcinogenic substances on and beyond the facility site.
Though the facility is located in an industrial area, just one street over, on the backside of the site, is a residential neighborhood filled with modest single-family dwellings where numerous families currently live.
The toxic substances from Litton’s production have leaked into and contaminated the groundwater 15 to 20 feet below these homes, the lawsuit states.
Kept Out of the Loop
“I grew up around here, rode my bike around every street in this neighborhood,” said Jed Behar. “We were settling down, wanted to have kids, and wanted to get a house in a place I felt comfortable with at the time.”
The Behars purchased their home at the end of 2011, and claim they never received any information that the property was above a toxic groundwater plume.
“I feel like if we had known about this before we moved into this house, we definitely would have paused and thought about the risks and researched it more,” said Alisa Behar, “I feel like we were deceived.
“It’s hard during the summer because we can’t keep the windows open and air everything out because it’s so hot,” she said. “Our kids love swimming in the pool, and I don’t know if it’s leaking up through the ground and into the pool. So it’s like do I limit their pool time?”
She was pregnant with their daughter Chloe when they moved into the home. Two years later, their son Nathan was born. At the age of five, he was diagnosed with level two Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
“Could it cause autism? Did it affect him?” Alisa Behar wonders, recalling how she used to swim in the pool when she was pregnant. “Will it affect Chloe in the future? … I don’t know.”
A short walk from their home, Nathan’s elementaryschool also sits inside the map’s boundaries.
Fact Sheets
Since acquiring Litton, the lawsuit references, Northrop Grumman has been investigating the contamination and conducting tests in the area under the supervision of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
From 2015 to 2017, under the direction of the California State Water Resources Control Board, Northrop Grumman distributed more than 13,000 “Fact Sheets” to homes near the site, containing information about the contamination investigation and cleanup, according to the lawsuit.
The Behars said they never received any notices.
“I’m the kind of person that reads my mail,” said Jed Behar. “I look for opportunities to see all the interesting things happening in my community, my hometown. I’m watchful and I know, I did not receive any notification. Not while I lived there. And not when I was buying the house.”
Is it Lying by Omission?
Ryan Ellis and Chris Nidel, two of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said the notices from Northrop Grumman deliberately downplayed the issue and hid important information from residents.
“[Northrop Grumman] didn’t notify [homeowners] that the chemicals had leaked into the neighborhood. They notified [homeowners] that the chemicals might have leaked and that they were doing an investigation,” said Nidel.
By identifying the region as simply an “investigation area,” Nidel suggests Northrop Grumman hid the severity of the issue from residents. Additionally, he noted that a map of the groundwater contamination was not included in the notices, despite it existing since 2007 and was to have been in the notification plan agreed to by the state.
“None of those notices ever explained exactly what chemicals were underneath people’s homes [or] in what concentrations they were under their homes,” added Ellis.
“[The notices] did not explain that the concentrations of those chemicals exceeded the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] screening limit, which triggers investigations, [and] which could signal potential adverse human health effects like cancers and birth defects.”
There’s Something in the Air
Plaintiffs assert that even if residents are not drinking the groundwater, the contaminants evaporate and disperse as a gas into the soil and potentially into the air of these homes, meaning residents could unknowingly be breathing toxic chemicals within their homes.
Northrop Grumman conducted tests in 26 homes and one church to check for unsafe levels of toxins in the air, according to the lawsuit.
Nidel claims these tests were not done properly to account for the reasonable worst case, a requirement of the EPA to verify that there is no toxic exposure in the area.
“When they tested for a problem, they tested in such a way that it was least likely to identify a problem,” said Nidel.
He pointed out that some of these tests were conducted during 40 to 50 mph Santa Ana winds, which could have ventilated the space, yielding a much different result. And although residents were instructed to remove chemicals and cleaning products from their homes before testing, they were not told to, for example, keep windows closed or run their furnaces, said Nidel.
“Then when they found a problem, which they in fact identified at several people’s homes, they blamed it on the people themselves,” he continued.
Ellis said Northrop Grumman even attributed higher toxin level readings in one home to an artificial Christmas tree instead of potential contamination.
“Some of the people who actually had their homes tested … to this day … have no idea that they are sitting on top of a plume of toxic chemicals,” said Ellis, adding that residents were told it was just an investigation, and later received letters claiming that no chemicals were detected in their homes.
Northrop Grumman claims they’ve been compliant with, and had the air quality testing approved by, the state water board.
Bolting the Door
“I want it remedied. I just want the problem gone,” said Jed Behar. “I want to feel safe from it, from any financial impact on the value of my property, and I don’t want to even think about possible health problems.”
The plaintiffs are calling for Northrop Grumman to mitigate contamination in all 3,294 properties.
Defendants argue this is overboard, calling for more tests to be conducted to determine which homes need mitigation, if at all, the lawsuit states.
“Our opinion is, rather than experiment and question this for months, if not years, while people continue to be exposed, just mitigate,” said Nidel, who added it would be cheaper to mitigate than conduct extensive tests.
“The devil is at the door, we know the devil is at the door … rather than testing to see if the devil has made it inside … let’s just put a bolt on the door.”
Gibson Dunn and Crutcher LLP, legal representativesfor Northrop Grumman, did not respond to the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol requests for comment.