Tests Ordered of Acton Water After Mercury Found in Soil

County supervisors Tuesday ordered an investigation of possible contamination of the water supply in Acton, where sheriff’s deputies, overseeing removal of tons of toxic materials from a makeshift gold refinery, found that mercury had been flushed deep into the soil.

“Chemicals were routinely shunted into the earth” down a pipe, which goes 12 feet into the ground from a shed on property recently sold by prospector Leslie Lynch, said Deputy Steve Lee, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

That could send the discharge into the water table, from which local wells draw drinking water. Ground water is only six or eight feet below the surface in that area, according to county health officials. There are four wells within half a mile that serve about 600 customers, including a shopping center.

“There may be unacceptable amounts of mercury and mercury vapors in the soil,” Lee said. “They’re testing for that.”

Residents Reassured at Meeting

About 20 residents of the small Santa Clarita Valley community turned out for a hastily organized public meeting Tuesday night, where a county water engineer tried to reassure them there is no evidence their water supply had been poisoned. Kenneth R. Putnam, an assistant deputy county engineer, told them that he already had the results of a mercury test on the county’s nearest well and “based on the tests we have conducted, we don’t have a problem at this time.”

Lee said the county expects to have the results of tests on other nearby wells Friday.

Mercury, used in assaying gold, is a dangerous poison, causing serious nerve, kidney and eye damage, and is suspected of causing birth defects.

Mercury is very heavy, however, and does not mix with water unless acid is present. “Free mercury might just sit at the bottom of the water,” said Larry Boyle, regional manager of the hazardous materials department of Crosby and Overton Inc., a Long Beach toxic waste disposal firm.

State and county health authorities contracted with the firm to clean up the property left by Lynch, a 75-year-old gold assayer and ore refiner who recently moved to San Diego County, after 190 containers of toxic chemicals were found on the site. The find included 55-gallon barrels of flammable liquids, caustics, acids and oxidizers.

The firm’s trucks had removed 14 tons of chemicals and chemically contaminated earth by Tuesday, Boyle said. The material will be taken to a toxic waste dump at Casmalia in Santa Barbara County, he said.

Premature Declaration

A declaration Monday by the county Department of Health Services that the chemicals apparently had not contaminated the ground or water was premature, Lee said.

The Board of Supervisors, meanwhile, ordered the Department of Health Services to test wells and water supplies in the area and report to the board in one week.

The board asked health officials to work with the district attorney’s office to ensure that Lynch, the former owner, be held financially responsible for the cleanup, which health officials said would cost about $40,000.