The mayors of four local cities have called upon the secretary of the Army to cancel the compost license agreement with Agromin
and the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.
In a letter dated Thursday, Oct. 29 and addressed to Maj. Gen. John S. Harrel, the mayors of Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress and
Garden Grove cited language in the Agromin OC Compost License Agreement that allows the secretary of the Army to revoke the
license at will.
Maj. Gen. Harrel is the commander of the JFTB. He inherited the base’s controversial composting project from his predecessor, Brig. Gen. James Combs (retired). “In light of the very clear language of the license, and given the undisputed adverse impacts of the composting activities on each of our communities, we call upon the secretary of the Army to exercise (his) unfettered right to terminate
this license agreement immediately,” the letter said.
“Revoking the license is the only meaningful way to mitigate the significant and on-going adverse impacts from these composting
activities. To do so would be an appropriate gesture to each of the communities, particularly given the lack of transparency in awarding this contract and the lack of meaningful environmental consideration of composting activities undertaken prior to awarding the license,” the letter said.
The mayors’ letter went on to identify Cypress City Manager John Bahorski (former Seal Beach city manager) as the contact person
for the four cities.
According to the letter, the mayors acquired a copy of the licensee agreement under the Freedom of Information Act. The letter to Maj. Gen. Harrel acknowledged that the problems related to the composting project had “diminished” since Harrel agreed to temporarily suspend the project on Thursday, Oct. 8.
However, the mayors expressed concern that the problems would return if the composting program resumed operations. The letter
asked Harrel to permanently cancel the project if he could do so legally. It was at this point in the letter that the mayors pointed out
the clause in the agreement that allowed the secretary of the Army to cancel the license.
