Save Our Community was founded in the movement to resist Wal-Mart's development in Rosemead, California. Now, it has become a general site for news, information, gossip, talk, and blogging about Rosemead. We also have stories about South San Gabriel, San Gabriel, Montebello, and occasionally about Pico Rivera, El Monte, South El Monte, Alhambra, Temple City, and other nearby communities. Your host is Todd. If you want a blog just sign up, get approved, and start writing. Good posts will be moved onto the home page.
Superfund
I should have clarified why contamination on the property would kill the project: There's a federal law called CERCLA, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Most people just call the law, "Superfund."
Superfund utilizes what they call "strict" liability. That means if your property is the source of contamination, you need to pay for the cleanup REGARDLESS OF YOUR ROLE IN CREATING THE MESS. So it's quite possible that the poor (relatively speaking) guy who bought the property where La Piazza is supposed to go is going to get stuck with a multi-million dollar bill to clean up the groundwater under his property. Either that, or he's going to have to go track down the previous owner, tenant, or dumper who caused the contamination and sue them for cleanup costs.
Critics of Superfund call it the Lawyer's Full Employment Act, because it creates such a litigious mess that everyone "lawyers up" and no one wants to pay for the actual cleanup.
Superfund
Is there insurance against getting caught up in the superfund mess? What a nightmare. I guess the 20th century is like a gift that keeps on giving.