Casmalia Landfill May Not Take Waste From McColl Dump

Amid signs of reluctance by a landfill owner here to accept hazardous waste from Fullerton’s McColl dump, the state health department is looking for possible alternative sites in Southern California for the smelly World War II oil refinery sludge.

Tom Bailey, director of program management for the Department of Health Services’ toxic substances control division, said in a telephone interview Thursday that Casmalia Resources landfill owner Ken Hunter Jr. has been “making noises he may not contract for the McColl waste” since the department filed an administrative complaint against his landfill two months ago alleging technical violations of state law.

Bailey said his staff is talking to operators of other hazardous waste landfills in Southern California about accepting the McColl waste in case an agreement with Hunter cannot be reached. Bailey would not name the facilities, but a check of the health department list of Class I dumps shows that the only other hazardous waste landfill in Southern California is the Chemical Waste Management dump in Kettleman Hills, near Coalinga.

Hunter could not be reached late Thursday to respond to Bailey’s comment. But at a press conference and tour of the landfill earlier in the day, Hunter said that about 10 issues--including price--stand in the way of a contract to accept the McColl waste.

“We’ve made no decision at all to receive that waste,” said Hunter, general partner of Casmalia Resources, at the press conference in Santa Maria, about 12 miles northeast of the hazardous waste landfill.

If the state must take the waste to a different landfill, it would have to prepare a second transportation safety plan and amend contracts, which could result in a further delay of a few weeks, Bailey said.

But despite the difficulties with Casmalia Resources, Bailey said the state is still proceeding with plans to take the 200,000 tons of waste by truck from Fullerton to the north Santa Barbara County site 200 miles away. He also said he still hopes to have an agreement signed with Hunter by mid-March.

During the tour of his facility Thursday, Hunter said that several conditions have changed since he quoted a price of $13.50 a ton to the state’s contractor 1 1/2 years ago.

He cited the decision by the federal Environmental Protection Agency last year that requires the construction of double-lined cells, designed to collect seepage, at landfills accepting waste, such as that from the McColl dump, under the federal “Superfund” hazardous waste cleanup program.

That requirement is expected to add $5 million to $7 million to the cost of the McColl cleanup, which was previously set at $21.5 million. It also has delayed the start of excavation until at least May.

Hunter said that while the state and its contractor, Canonie Engineers of Indiana, have been working on plans for the cell, he hardly has been consulted and has not yet approved the design. Further, he said, there are unresolved questions of liability for the double-liner and whether Casmalia Resources will be able to use that area of the landfill for other customers.

Another matter to be ironed out, Hunter said, is Canonie’s plan to transport much of the McColl waste at night, designed to keep the 40 trucks making the trips daily off the road during rush hours in Los Angeles.

Hunter said Casmalia Resources accepts hazardous waste only from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. so that it can be handled by daylight. If the landfill accepts McColl waste at night, lights will have to be installed, he said.

He said he wants to sit down with the McColl contractor and federal and state officials to discuss the issues. No date for such a meeting has been set, he said.

At one point the landfill owner’s son, Kenneth Hunter III, who joined the tour, jokingly called the McColl waste “politically hazardous,” a reference to adverse public reaction in Santa Barbara County to the landfill’s growing business as a site for hazardous waste. His father laughingly agreed.

Hunter’s dump has been the focus of controversy in Santa Barbara County lately. Residents in this rural community have complained about odors that they believe come from the dump, which accepts a variety of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes from oil refineries and other industries. Hunter maintains that the odors are not generated by the dump but probably by nearby oil productions operations.

Traffic to the dump has increased recently because of the closure of the BKK landfill in West Covina, and some county officials are upset that the dump, originally built to accept only local waste, now has customers from throughout Southern California.

Earlier this month, the City and County of Santa Barbara filed a suit against the state health department in an attempt to prevent the McColl waste from going to Casmalia. A hearing is set for March 29.

Bailey said that Hunter “has been making comments to us” about possibly not accepting the McColl waste since the health department issued the citations against the Casmalia landfill.

The violations, according to a spokesman for the health department’s toxic substances control enforcement office, included not having a waste analysis plan; placing ignitable hazardous waste in a pond without treating it first, and failing to prevent rainwater from running into chemical ponds, which could overflow.

Casmalia Resources has made some modifications “and progress appears to have been made,” but the case is not closed, said Larry Matz, assistant to the enforcement office’s coordinator.

Earlier in the day, Hunter called the alleged violations “minor in nature,” adding that none involved charges that waste was migrating from the dump. He said some of the alleged violations stem from conflicting regulations issued by the 17 governmental agencies that have jurisdiction over his operations.

Despite Hunter’s insistence that no commitment has been made on the McColl waste, Casmalia Resources has set aside a steep canyon in the northwest section of the dump for the waste, to be used if a contract is signed. Dump officials conducting the press tour Thursday pointed out the barren ravine--next to green hills dotted with cattle and oak trees--and said that the canyon would be graded for the construction of the double-lined cell.

Bailey said he directed his staff to look at other landfills a couple of days ago and that the action has nothing to do with the lawsuit by the City and County of Santa Barbara. The state is confident it will prevail in court, as it survived a similar challenge on the cleanup of the Capri dump in Los Angeles, Bailey said.

Hunter “is a private operator and it is his decision whether to do business” with the state, Bailey said.

Tom Donovan, McColl project manager for Canonie Engineers, said his firm has been trying to negotiate a contract with Casmalia Resources and that a draft agreement--along with drawings of the double-liner cell design--has been mailed to Hunter and state and federal officials. The draft spells out price and matters of liability, he said, but he refused to divulge any figures.