Pasadena Unified School District has resumed soil remediation work this week, but disruptions from local tree advocates and a legal row with the city have forced the district to adjust its plan and, according to officials, will likely result in some outdoor areas being unavailable when the new school year starts.
Late last week, PUSD sued over its assertion that the district, and not the city of Pasadena, had jurisdiction over soil remediation and, if necessary, tree-removal work at district sites. The legal step was in response to a month of back-and-forth between the two government agencies over PUSD’s controversial plan to remediate contaminated soil in the wake of the Eaton fire.
“Work is continuing at affected sites, including environmental testing and monitoring to confirm that impacted soil is properly removed and that replacement soil meets applicable safety standards,” a Tuesday afternoon, July 28, district statement provided by PUSD spokesperson Hilda Ramirez Horvath read.
After initially telling the district that its tree protection ordinance did not apply to the project, the city of Pasadena informed PUSD that it would have to abide by the statute and issued stop-work notices.
On Friday, July 24, a judge rejected the district’s request for a restraining order against the city citing the Board of Education’s approval of a resolution that exempted the district’s remediation work from the city’s zoning code, which includes the tree protection ordinance. In addition, city officials said they would not enforce the stop work notices it had issued.
Even before the city intervened, local residents and environmental advocates had been taking it upon themselves to protest at district sites where removals were taking place and in some cases tied themselves to tree trunks or climbed up into trees marked for removal.
PUSD’s original plan called for the removal of 193 of the district’s some 5,000 trees. In another resolution trustees that committed to preserving protected trees by seeking alternative methods of remediation.
Those disruptions, according to the statement, have forced district officials to, “adjust sequencing, put additional security measures in place, and ensure contractors can work safely before broader work proceeds.”
District officials have repeated, and did so again Tuesday, that the result of the disruptions will be that parts of school sites will not be available to students when the new school year begins in mid-August.
“Any campus areas reopened to students will be clean and safe, but it is becoming increasingly likely that some green space and outdoor areas will remain unavailable when school begins—meaning students ultimately bear the cost of these delays,” the district statement read.