Copyright Santa Clarita Valley Signal
A well-known pool-chemical manufacturer that’s been operating on Drayton Street since the 1970s is looking for City Council permission to upgrade the technology at its new plant to increase efficiency, according to company officials. The city’s Planning Commission signed off on the plans with a 3-1 vote in September, with newly appointed Commissioner Dan Faina the lone “no” vote and Pamela Verner recusing herself due to the potential for a conflict of interest. Her husband, Dennis Verner, manages a neighboring property for Burrtec. City Councilwoman Laurene Weste requested a “certification of review” Sept. 26, according to the council’s agenda for Tuesday. When asked Monday about her concerns, Weste said in a phone interview that she shared them with Hasa. “It’s a major project, and it’s important for people to know what it does, what it is, and what all the safety precautions are. And I think that’s the important thing,” she said. “You should always let people know what’s happening with something like this.” Her worry revolved around the handling of chemicals they’ve been manufacturing there for decades, she said, adding the company has been “amenable” to her concerns. “Oh, there’s a whole list of them, and (Hasa) will articulate some improvements tomorrow, but I don’t have time to go into detail right now with all of it,” she said. “But it’s just some basic stuff that I think they’ve been very amenable to explaining what they’re doing.” The company produces, packages, stores and distributes water-treatment products, according to city officials, who said its current owners, Wind Point Partners LLC, want to “expand the company’s local footprint by modernizing the two Springbrook Avenue buildings to a state-of-the-art 1-gallon bottling facility.” The manufacturing of water-treatment products involves potentially dangerous chemicals: sodium hypochlorite, which is also known as a bleach; hydrochloric or muriatic acid; and sodium hydroxide, which is used to neutralize acid. The primary goal with the new plan is safety and efficiency, according to city of Santa Clarita officials. There have been multiple safety concerns at Hasa documented by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to federal records available online. An event in July 2023 sent seven people to the hospital after a muriatic acid spill. That incident resulted in an inspection and more than $215,000 in fines for 15 serious violations, including violations for not having guardrails on a stationary baler; not having secured conveyor belt; and for its safety alarm. About three months later, there was a $113,000 penalty assessed as the result of an Oct. 25, 2023, report to OSHA following an incident. The most serious violation that time involved a lack of guardrails on “unprotected sides of elevated work locations.” Angela Tran, who represented Hasa on the project in front of the Planning Commission, said there would be more employees at the new facility, but also discussed how machines would be able to do some of the jobs currently performed by staff. Wind Point, a Chicago-based private equity firm, announced its purchase of Hasa in January 2023, in a deal reported to be worth approximately $60 million based on Hasa’s earnings. While automation often comes at the expense of jobs, Tran said that would not be the case with this project. In an email Monday, she said the renovation “introduces automation to reduce physical strain and improve working conditions — without cutting jobs.” In the request for construction permits, Tran described an aging, crowded facility that frequently involved people working around each other in tight quarters while dealing with chemicals that could cause significant health problems in the event of an accident. “Right now, if you go to our site, in the peak summer months, people are literally running over each other just trying to get products out; the forklift is driving,” Tran told planning commissioners in September. “We’re trying to be safe, but it’s very tight in space.”
