The base was officially closed on July 3, 1999 in accordance with the Base Realignment and Closure Act. The plaintiffs are alleging, however, that Tustin has ignored the DOE's land grant all along and the entire 100 acres to the South Orange County Community College district. Instead, Tustin has offered SAUSD 22 acres and RSCCD 15 acres plus $20 million.

The major problem lies in the environmental arena. Ten percent of the base was within the boundaries of the two plaintiffs' school districts. That land is agricultural in nature and untainted. The land being offered by the city, however, is heavily contaminated with Trichloroesthene (TCE), according to the environmental analyses conducted by Dr. Denise Clendening or Arcadis, Geraghty & Miller. Breathing in large doses of TCE is known to cause impaired heart function, coma and death. Breathing in small amounts can cause dizziness, headaches, poor coordination and difficulty concentrating.

"We cannot fathom why the City of Tustin, knowing the toxic issues on the base, would develop a land use plan that allocated the cleanest property to the uses that require the least environmental cleanup and places Santa Ana's children and teachers at risk on highly toxic land," says attorney Edmund Connor. "The only conclusion we can draw is that the City of Tustin does not want the largely Hispanic children from Santa Ana in their city."

According the company, the state's environmental cleanup standards are far less stringent for commercial development than they are for potential school sites. This site is so contaminated, the release states, that it would take millions of dollars and many years to meet those standards before a school could be built.