McColl Waste Finds a Home : Kern County Firm Gets OK to Store the Sludge

After five years of lobbying, studies and delays, a Kern County disposal site has been approved for storage of World War II oil refinery sludge from Fullerton’s McColl dump, paving the way for removal of the hazardous waste beginning May 15, authorities said Tuesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s toxics and waste management division in San Francisco on Monday approved a disposal site operated by Petroleum Waste Inc. of Bakersfield as an acceptable depository for an estimated 200,000 tons of McColl waste and contaminated soil.

Upon receiving the approval, state officials overseeing the $26.5-million Superfund cleanup project on Tuesday informally awarded the disposal contract to Petroleum Waste, the lowest of four bidders at $31.50 a ton.

“We have not received the contract in writing yet, but we have been notified by the state Department of Health Services that we have been given approval,” said Gary Leary, Petroleum Waste’s general manager.

The two-year-old disposal site is located on 320 acres off state Highway 58, about 36 miles west of Bakersfield near the rural farm community of Buttonwillow. It is a Class II-1 disposal site with a federal permit to accept petroleum waste products.

State and project officials appeared before the Kern County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, agreeing to try to avoid congested highways when transporting the hazardous material. The move was a response to Buttonwillow residents’ objections to having 40 trucks a day carrying waste through their community for 14 months.

Could Go to Others

It is possible, however, that some of the McColl waste still may go to one or all of the remaining bidders, according to Woody Gibson, the McColl project’s transportation manager.

“We may at some other time need another disposal site . . . if the waste turns out to be worse than we expect or extremely toxic,” said Gibson, who works for Crosby & Overton, the Long Beach firm awarded the subcontract to haul the excavated material from McColl. “We have to have other options.”

Gibson said there would be no lengthy review of a second company so long as materials dumped met the permit restrictions of the disposal site.

The other bidders were Chemical Waste Management in Kettleman Hills, the I T Corp. disposal site in Imperial Valley and the Casmalia Resources landfill in northern Santa Barbara County--the original site chosen for the McColl waste.

The McColl dump site was created in the mid-1940s when oil companies, producing aviation fuel for World War II, deposited waste in 12 sumps operated by Eli McColl in a Fullerton area which was then mostly rural. Now the dump site, situated under a vacant field and a portion of a nine-hole golf course belonging to Los Coyotes Country Club, is bordered on three sides by upper-middle-class homes.

Caused Health Problems

State health officials have determined that the soil contains sulfuric acid, benzene and arsenic, and the fumes contain sulfur dioxide, causing surrounding residents to suffer from headaches, nausea and respiratory problems.

Last year the state Department of Health Services, which is overseeing the Superfund project for the EPA, selected Canonie Engineers of Chesterton, Ind., as the prime contractor to excavate McColl waste and contaminated soil, then transport the material to an approved landfill.

Casmalia, located about 12 miles southwest of Santa Maria, originally had agreed to accept McColl waste for $30 a ton.

But the price was raised to $140 a ton after the EPA decided in January that any dump site receiving the waste must have a double-lined vault and leak-detection systems to prevent groundwater contamination. Unable to reach agreement on a price with Casmalia, Canonie officials sought bids from the three other disposal facilities.

Meanwhile, Santa Barbara city and county governments have challenged the earlier Casmalia selection in court in an effort to block trucking of the McColl waste until a full environmental impact report has been prepared.

The apparent selection of Petroleum Waste Inc. appears to make the court case moot, project officials said.

Cost Grows by $5 Million

Originally, the McColl cleanup was to cost $21.5 million, with 90% of the money coming from the EPA. The EPA’s added requirements, however, were expected to add about $5 million to the project costs.

Petroleum Waste already has triple-lined vaults. It is also 20 miles closer to the Fullerton dump than Casmalia, a significant distance considering that about 200 loads a week will be hauled to the site.

Leary said the McColl project will be the largest in the company’s history and would require extensive advance work to construct the three man-made ponds that are expected to contain the McColl sludge.

Leary said that state project manager Steven Viani essentially gave his firm “a green light” on Tuesday. But Leary said, “We’re not going to spend any money until we see the (state Department of Health Services) letter.”