Santa Clarita residents might not notice the effects of some underground detonations in the coming weeks, but the booms are returning.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control will be overseeing the cleanup and safety in the upcoming demolition of Munitions and Explosives of Concern, or MEC, at the Whittaker Bermite site within the first two weeks of October.

A variety of different items were found during the MEC survey held by Whittaker’s contractors before being safely stored within the site until detonation was to be planned.

The project manager of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, Jose Diaz, explained how they had to hold onto these items until a detonation could be scheduled.

“We have to wait for a good collection of items are found until we can properly destroy them,” Diaz said. “These are items we have found and safely stored away throughout three years… we can’t possibly plan and prepare for a detonation everytime we come across something.”

These items are materials that potentially could maintain energy, such as left-behind chemicals from decades-old munitions, or they cannot be determined as safe and inactive and, as a result, must be destroyed.

The Whittaker Bermite site is located along Soledad Canyon Road, but the location of the detonation will take place within a box canyon in the East Fork Landfill. The nearest residential development is 4,400 feet away and the closest occupied building is over 1,400 feet away.

All items will be placed with the “blast pit” before explosives are placed around it and are buried under heaps of soil before demolition.

“The location is in a well hidden canyon and is a safe distance away from everything,” said Diaz. “Our last detonation was in 2013, and the most that came from detonation then was something that sounded like a .22 and some dust rising above the canyon.”

Work will begin on Monday, Oct. 3 and conclude within six working days on Thursday, Oct. 12. All work will be conducted during the hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 3-6 and Oct. 10, 11, and 12.