SOS to Post Bond for Cleanup, Disposal of Hazardous Wastes

Space Ordnance Systems has agreed to post a $2.1-million bond and an $800,000 letter of credit to pay for the cleanup of ground water and soil contamination, and the disposal of barrels of hazardous waste at its plants in the Santa Clarita Valley, the company’s attorney said Thursday.

If SOS meets the cleanup requirements, approved Wednesday by the county Regional Planning Commission, the company will be allowed to continue operating its explosives manufacturing plants until land-use permits expire in December, 1991.

David Breier, an attorney for SOS, said the company must comply with the commission’s orders to post within 30 days a $2.1-million bond and letters of credit amounting to $800 for each of about 1,000 barrels of hazardous waste still stored at its sites in Sand and Mint canyons.

More than 1,800 barrels have been illegally stored at the plant, but in recent weeks hundreds of barrels of the waste have been recycled or shipped to a South Carolina waste-treatment facility that is legally disposing of the chemicals. Breier said the company expects to meet a county-imposed deadline of Nov. 30 for disposing of the rest of the barrels.

Meanwhile, Breier said, the company has been ordered to put in a cleanup system at the sites.

SOS is awaiting a state report that will outline procedures for cleaning up the tainted soil and ground water discovered at the plants, he said. Once SOS has received the state report, the company has one year--or until December, 1986, whichever comes first--to construct a cleanup system, he said.