Whittier Narrows Flood Control Basin

It was a lesson in political hardball, a taste of local Realpolitik, for South El Monte after its city officials tangled Tuesday with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors over city plans to develop a string of car dealerships in a specially built auto park.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding the monitoring of ground water in the Whittier Narrows area of the San Gabriel Valley Area Superfund site. Cost of the five-year plan was estimated at $5.2 million, including $900,000 for sampling existing wells and $4.3 million for installing and sampling new wells, federal EPA officials said. The water is safe and does not need to be cleaned up, but expansion of monitoring was approved to ensure health and environmental protection, the EPA said.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding the monitoring of ground water in the Whittier Narrows area of the San Gabriel Valley Area Superfund site. Cost of the five-year plan was estimated at $5.2 million, including $900,000 for sampling existing wells and $4.3 million for installing and sampling new wells, federal EPA officials said. The water is safe and does not need to be cleaned up, but expansion of monitoring was approved to ensure health and environmental protection, the EPA said.

It was a lesson in political hardball, a taste of local Realpolitik, for South El Monte after its city officials tangled Tuesday with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors over city plans to develop a string of car dealerships in a specially built auto park.

A South El Monte property has been removed from consideration as the site for a county hospital because engineers said the land could be flooded in a severe rainstorm. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to eliminate the property--at the intersection of Santa Anita Avenue and the Pomona (60) Freeway--from a list of possible homes for the East Valley Medical Center.

More than a week later, friends and family are mystified over how Rene Yanez, an accomplished horseman, could have vanished while on a moonlit ride along the San Gabriel River. The 21-year-old Rosemead man regularly competed in "El Paso de La Muerte," an event in which he and other contestants jump from their galloping horses onto the bare back of a running wild horse. He also mastered the art of bull riding, tying for first place last year in the competitive event at a Phoenix, Ariz., rodeo.

Irwindale had plenty of land, but someone was already building an industrial park on it. Bassett had a central location, but no one was prepared to demolish small businesses and 88 homes to clear the land. Pomona seemed prepared to put out the welcome mat, but it was judged too far east.

City of Industry officials will continue fighting Los Angeles County over its selection of a 35-acre, city-owned parcel as the site for the proposed East Valley Medical Center. The location--west of Hacienda Boulevard at Don Julian Road near Valley Boulevard--was a last-minute entry in a two-year search by county staff members, who looked at 51 other sites in the region for the proposed 340-bed hospital.

Irwindale had plenty of land, but someone was already building an industrial park on it. Bassett had a central location, but no one was prepared to demolish small businesses and 88 homes to clear the land. Pomona seemed prepared to put out the welcome mat but it was judged too far east.