Transcript excerpts regarding Belmont Learning Center with guest Tom Watson

TOM WATSON: My name is Tom Watson, Los Angeles Unified School District, Office of Environmental Health and Safety. The question you’re asking, it is, as Hamid mentioned, it’s contained in the CEQUA document. That document is available on the website, as far as I know, and in the CEQUA document, it looks at impacts from the surrounding neighborhood onto the site, and one of those impacts would obviously be the emissions from the nearby highways. Within the CEQUA document, there’s an analysis done. It’s called a Hazard Risk Analysis, and it looks specifically at emissions from automobiles and engines and nearby businesses – even Burger King counts as an emission source, which is – Jack-in-the-Box nearby, those kinds of things. That’s all evaluated. It’s put into a model that was developed by the EPA, and then based on that model, certain mitigation measures have to be implemented. One of them at the school is the type of air conditioning filters we have. The other thing, if you look at the site, you’ll notice that all the buildings are set back from the side that’s closest to the freeway. That’s another mitigation measure. So there was several things that were done within the context of the CEQUA evaluation that mitigate the concerns that you raised. And more detail is provided in that document. If you wanted to look at it, give me a call. My phone number and stuff is in the packet.