Casmalia Owner Says Extra Precautions ‘Unnecessary’ to Receive McColl Waste

The owner of the landfill where waste from Fullerton’s McColl dump is headed said on Thursday the extra precautions being required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at his facility are “unnecessary,” but he does not object as long as he does not have to pay the $5-million bill.

“It’s unnecessary. But that is only my opinion and the opinion of (the company’s) scientists, and the laws are not written by the scientists here,” said Kenneth Hunter Jr., manager and principal general partner of Casmalia Resources, which operates a licensed hazardous waste landfill in Casmalia, in north Santa Barbara County.

New Provisions Cited Hunter was reacting to the EPA’s decision that the World War II waste excavated from the McColl dump must be disposed of in a landfill that meets new, stringent regulations designed to prevent groundwater contamination.

Lee Thomas, nominated to succeed William D. Ruckelshaus as EPA administrator, has ruled that all wastes cleaned up under the “Superfund” program must be deposited in landfills that comply with new provisions of the nation’s basic environmental protection law, even if the facilities are not legally required to satisfy the regulations.

Thomas made the decision this week after reviewing several Superfund cases--including McColl--subsequent to President Reagan’s reauthorization of the law in November, according to Keith Takata, branch chief of the Superfund program in EPA’s San Francisco office.

The new regulations require landfills built or expanded after May to have double liners under the hazardous waste, plus a double monitoring and collection system to prevent leaking chemicals from saturating the soil underneath. Even existing landfills that are not legally affected by the legislation must comply if they accept Superfund wastes, Takata said.

The Casmalia landfill, Hunter said, sits atop a natural clay liner that is “hundreds of feet thick,” and there is no groundwater below.

The natural liner “is a great deal more impervious” than the artificial liners required by the EPA, he said, adding:

“If we were over a large watershed or even in the (nearby) Santa Maria basin, I could see the point, but we are over an impervious area with unmeasurable groundwater.”

An EPA spokesman said earlier this week that the federal agency would finance 90% of the construction cost, estimated at $5 million to $6 million, and the state Department of Health Services would pay the remainder.

Previously, the price of the McColl cleanup had been set at $21.5 million, with the federal and state agencies agreeing to the same 90%-10% cost-sharing.

Hunter emphasized that Casmalia Resources has not yet signed a contract to accept the McColl waste. “Those knots have not been tied,” he said.

Transportation Plan Readied However, Tom Bailey, program management chief for the state health department’s toxic substances control division, reiterated Wednesday that Casmalia will receive the McColl waste. A transportation safety plan, describing in detail the Fullerton-to-Casmalia route, has been prepared by the excavating contractor and is being reviewed by the state.

Construction of the double liner at Casmalia is expected to take four weeks but should not delay excavation, scheduled to begin in early February, Bailey said. The excavated waste will be stored in a temporary facility at Casmalia until the double-liner area is finished, Bailey has said.

Hunter said more discussions are needed to determine “if such a storage area is available . . . and how to retransport the waste” to the permanent landfill area, after the double liner has been installed.