Lynwood

A public hearing is scheduled Monday on the planned removal of more than 100,000 cubic yards of toxic waste from the Willco Dump, the planned site of a major interchange of the Century Freeway.

The 7 p.m. hearing at Bateman Hall, 11330 Bullis Road, adjacent to Lynwood City Hall, will be conducted by the state departments of Transportation and Health Services.

Safety and environmental issues of hauling the waste materials from the 14.5-acre dump will be discussed, said Caltrans spokesman Thomas Knox.

“We want to put any concern the public might have about its safety at rest. We are obligated to protect the public and will,” Knox said.

The department plans to move the materials to a landfill at Kettleman Hills, about 40 miles north of Bakersfield, Knox said.

Competitive bidding for the $18-million excavation project is scheduled to start in late May. Excavation is expected to begin about mid-September and take about seven months.

Caltrans had cleared more than 215,000 cubic yards of material from the dump, which is south of Century Boulevard and west of the Long Beach Freeway, when it decided to cover the remaining waste rather than remove it. Work at the dump site was suspended in February, 1984, after residents and politicians protested the plan to cover the waste.

After work was suspended, a San Francisco consulting firm hired by Caltrans found heavy metals, pesticides and carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic compounds at the site.