The California Department of Health and Human Services will conduct a study of the potential health impacts of Riverside’s Ag Park project.
The study is a response to a written request Riverside made to the department in March, according to a statement posted Monday on the city’s website.
Health and Human Services will work with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to determine if polychlorinated byphenyls might have migrated from the 62-acre site into the surrounding neighborhood.
Since 2003, when a sewage spill occurred at the site, residents have complained that PCB’s were released onto the site, causing cancer and other illnesses among people who lived nearby.
Ag Park is a 60-acre site between Crest and Rutland avenues. A former military installation, that included a sewage treatment center, the city gave the land to Friend of Riverside Airport in 2003 for development.
Shortly thereafter the sewage spill happened, and the city has been trying, off and on, to clean it up ever since.