Judge won’t halt construction at county building

SANTA ANA An Orange County Superior Court judge on Friday declined to order the county to stop installing solar panels at a Social Services Agency building in Orange that is the subject of lawsuit.

A dozen current and former agency employees and family members sued the county in 2010, saying that working at 840 N. Eckhoff St. caused illnesses in themselves or their children. One employee has filed a workers' compensation claim.

The county office building at 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Orange.

ANDREW GALVIN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Judge Steven L. Perk on Friday refused to halt the solar panel installation project, which began in March, saying the plaintiffs failed to show they would suffer irreparable harm if the work continues. "What has happened (already) I can't do anything about," he said.

Attorney Peter Alfert, representing the plaintiffs, argued that by digging 7.5-foot-deep, 3-foot-wide holes in parking lots around the building, the county was destroying evidence. The holes are for poles that will support the solar panels.

Plaintiffs in the case argue that contaminants in the soil under and near the office building, which is on a former industrial site at which oil drilling equipment was manufactured, caused their diseases and birth defects.

Soil samples taken from 10 feet beneath the building found "levels warranting further investigation" of an industrial solvent known to be hazardous to human health, the county said in February.

The chemical, perchloroethylene, or perc, has been found by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be a "likely human carcinogen." The amounts of perc vapors found in the soil were within EPA guidelines, but slightly above stricter California guidelines, the county said.

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Judge won’t halt construction at county building