Fullerton Project : Bakersfield Firm Is Low on McColl Bid

Petroleum Waste Inc., a Bakersfield company with a landfill 150 miles from the McColl hazardous waste dump in Fullerton, has offered the lowest bid for storage of much of McColl’s waste, beginning as early as May 15.

“As long as they (Petroleum) can demonstrate that they can substantially comply with EPA’s requirements as outlined for the bidding process, they will be awarded (a portion of) the contract,” said Robert Borzelleri, a spokesman for the state Toxic Substance Control Division in Sacramento.

For the first time, state officials in charge of McColl’s cleanup disclosed that they may use two dumps, one for solid waste and another for liquid waste, to dispose of the hazardous material.

No Decision Made

Steven Viani, McColl project manager for the state health department, said that a decision to allow Petroleum to handle both liquid and solid wastes has not been made.

It is conceivable, Viani said, that another company could join Petroleum for the lucrative storage contract. “They do have their foot in the door,” Viani said.

Petroleum’s $31.50-a-ton offer for an estimated 220,000 tons of petroleum waste was the lowest bid among four companies, Borzelleri said, although weight-to-mile computations were still pending. The bids included one from Casmalia Resources landfill, the original site selected. The Casmalia bid encountered uncertainty after legal challenges by the City and County of Santa Barbara.

Referring to Petroleum’s low bid in the complex bidding process, Viani said that although the money aspect is “certainly an important consideration,” the state still must await a federal Environmental Protection Agency review of the bid to ensure that the company is free of any significant enforcement action.

“It’s great news for Petroleum!” declared Gary Leary, the firm’s operations manager in Bakersfield. If Petroleum is awarded a contract, the waste would be stored at Petroleum’s Buttonwillow landfill.

Leary said he spent the day first in Long Beach, where the bids were submitted, then in Fullerton examining the McColl dump before he flew back to Bakersfield.

“We turned the bid in at 1 p.m., but they gave no indication then who would win. I feel wonderful.”

Casmalia originally had agreed to accept McColl’s waste for $30 a ton, then verbally raised its offer to $140 a ton after the federal Environmental Protection Agency decided in January that the dump selected to receive McColl’s World War II refinery sludge would be required to construct a double-lined vault to guard against groundwater contamination.

Casmalia’s bid Monday was identical to its $140 verbal offer, Borzelleri said.

Plans for the state’s $21.5-million cleanup effort received a setback March 29 when a judge ruled that the City and County of Santa Barbara, where Casmalia’s landfill is located, had a legal right to require a state environmental impact report for the trucking of the waste, despite the state’s argument for a “categorical exemption.”

Petroleum’s apparent low bid now seems to make the case moot.

The Casmalia site is located about 12 miles southwest of Santa Maria in northern Santa Barbara County.

Spokesmen for the state and its contractor, Canonie Engineers of Chesterton, Ind., have said that if the Petroleum’s bid won, excavation of the McColl waste could begin in four to six weeks.

Petroleum’s Buttonwillow site is designated a Class 11-1 landfill, which means it has a permit to handle dumping of petroleum waste products like McColl’s sludge. A Class 1 designation would allow the dumping of the most hazardous wastes.

The 2-year-old dump already has a double-lined vault, Leary said. “In fact, it’s triple-lined.”

It already stores waste from oil refining companies in Los Angeles and oil production and refining wastes from companies in the Bakersfield area.

Buttonwillow’s vaults are large, man-made ponds consisting of compacted soil, a clay liner, a 30-millimeter plastic liner, followed by a leak-detention system, another plastic liner, a second leak-detection system, and another clay layer, Leary said.

Compliance calls for proof that Petroleum’s 320-acre Buttonwillow waste site, about 36 miles west of the company’s main office in Bakersfield, has proper permits filed with the EPA, Borzelleri said.

“We have to review and make sure they’re in total compliance,” he added.

Borzelleri said Petroleum could be officially awarded the contract by the end of the week, with final storage to begin possibly by mid-May.

This week, state toxic substance control officials will be meeting with Bakersfield area health and safety officials to discuss possible transportation routes.

The current transportation plan, a two-inch-thick report, had assessed trucking the waste to Casmalia, with Kettleman Hills, as an alternative.

Kettleman, near Coalinga about 200 miles north of Fullerton, is a Class 1 facility operated by one of the bidders, Chemical Waste Management, which is owned by Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook, Ill., the nation’s largest handler of hazardous waste.

IT Corp., Westmorland, in the Imperial Valley about 150 miles from McColl, was the fourth bidder.

Borzelleri said the state will revise its plan in accordance with the new site. The plan must then be submitted to local jurisdictions along the route.

However, major components, including monitoring and safety checks now in the state’s transportation plan, will remain the same, Borzelleri said.