Officers make arrests at the Halaco site

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The chain-link fence and the signs warning of contamination andradiation didn't stop them, but the police did.

A push to beef up security and stop trespassing at the HalacoSuperfund site near Ormond Beach has netted several arrests,according to the Oxnard Police Department.

On Wednesday, officers spotted two groups of people on thecontaminated site. In the morning, officers saw Ulises Carranza,18, and Jorge Gutierrez Lara, 25, sorting through scrap metal atthe site of the old smelter. Both men were arrested.

Later in the afternoon, officers on patrol spotted Edwin AllenRockenbach, 44, and Daniel Eugene Senters, 34, walking their bikesinside the fenced line near the massive waste pile.

They, too, were arrested, according to police.

Trespassing has been a perennial issue at the 40-acre facility,even before it was abandoned and designated as a Superfundhazardous materials clean-up site last year.

It's a popular spot for graffiti artists and has periodically beenused by homeless people, but officials from the EnvironmentalProtection Agency have attempted to secure the site and keep peopleout for their safety.

In March, officials from the EPA, who are still working on a planfor cleaning up the 710,000 cubic feet of waste laden with heavymetals and low-level radiation, met with local police to work out abetter way of securing the property, said Wayne Praskins, projectmanager of the EPA's Superfund program.

"After the meeting, the owners took several steps that we (the EPA)and/or the police requested," said Praskins.

That includes repairing the fence, trimming vegetation alongPerkins Road and putting better locks on the gates.

"We have also put new signs up and continued our occasionalinspections of the site," he said.

Halaco is located where Perkins Road dead-ends at the beach. Theproperty includes the massive pile of waste now covered with jutefabric to prevent dust from wafting off it, as well as an adjacentcollection of aging concrete and rusting metal buildings.

The risks for people who sneak into the site have more to do withthe dangers in and around the decaying buildings, which the city ofOxnard has condemned.

Demolition of the structures was slated for last year but has beenhalted because of nesting swallows, said Praskins.

The heavy metals in the waste pile, which is covered, and thelow-level radiation buried on the property do not pose an immediaterisk to people, according to the EPA.

Oxnard Police officials said they would continue to aggressivelypatrol the area to keep people off the site.