Waste Oil Poses Toxic Threat : 1,300-Barrel Disposal Dilemma at Idle Plant

They lie in the shadow of Interstate 5 and a stone’s throw from the trolley line--1,300 drums of toxic waste oil and acid sludge left over from the reprocessing of used crankcase oil at Nelco Refinery Corp.

First, the company said it had invented a machine to turn the wastes into fertilizer. Then it said the machine caught fire. Now Nelco says it wants to reprocess the stuff in Mexico, but it says the earthquake there has gummed up the paper work.

Next week, lawyers for the state and Nelco return to court to discuss the agreement under which Nelco was to have removed the drums by last July. A three-month extension expires late this month, and state and county officials say their faith has frayed.

“We certainly feel like we’re being jerked around,” said Jim Smith of the toxic substances division of the state health department. “We had an agreement, didn’t we? One of the parties reneged on the deal, and it isn’t us.”

Meanwhile, the county has concluded that at least some of the drums contain cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). And county health officials are surveying the neighborhood to find out whether living near the barrels has affected anyone’s health.

The National City fire chief has warned that he would have to close the freeway and the trolley in the event, albeit unlikely, of a fire. Depending on the wind direction, he says, he would have to evacuate thousands of people in the western edge of the city.

“If it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous, and it should be taken care of,” said Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), who intervened to help compel Nelco to fence the property and post warning signs. “If it’s not, it’s not. There’s no such thing as a little bit dead.”

The barrels, in a lot near the Civic Center Drive exit off Interstate 5, contain byproducts of used-oil recycling. They include a plastic containing heavy metals, and sulfuric acid, said Roger Humphreys, president of Nelco, the only waste-oil reprocessor in San Diego County.

The expense and effort of getting rid of such waste has increased in recent years as environmental regulations have been strengthened. So, according to Humphreys, Nelco developed a process for recycling the waste into fertilizer and a coal-like material usable as fuel.

But the machine caught fire in 1983, leaving the company with hundreds of drums of unprocessed waste, Humphreys said. He said Nelco cannot afford the environmental impact study required to restart the machine, and he is not sure the process would be permitted.

“I say that’s very nice and neat, and I’m sure it’s all proper and legal,” Humphreys said of the requirements for restarting. “But I can’t even afford my attorney’s fees, let alone all the extra effort. There’s no way we can reinitiate the machine.”

So, under pressure of a lawsuit by the state, and the June, 1984, agreement to clean up the site by late this month, Nelco has a new plan: It wants to rebuild its recycling machine in Mexico and ship the waste there for reprocessing into fertilizer.

Humphreys conceded this week that Nelco has chosen no location and has no approval from Mexico or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He attributed the latest delay to the Mexico City earthquake, saying the disaster has slowed Nelco’s applications.

“The biggest problem we’re running into right now is the devastation,” he said. “The only way that you get anything out of Mexico City is to fly there and search out the department head. It’s making us look very bad.”

Nelco’s Mexico proposal has not inspired confidence.

Peace, who represents the area, characterized the plan as a ploy. Saying U.S. and Mexican officials have told his office that there is little chance of approval, Peace accused Nelco of stalling in order to get its old recycling equipment approved in the United States.

Jim Smith, toxics program manager for the state Department of Health Services’ area office, said he knew of no way of legally shipping the waste out of the United States, and his office would not approve its transport “to some unknown use.”

“If there were an active site in Mexico to detoxify the waste and turn it into fertilizer, it would be something that could be considered,” said Larry Aker, manager of the county’s hazardous materials program. “But since we’re talking about the development of some future process in Mexico for something that has to be disposed of now, in no way does that represent a viable option.”

Aker said he first approached Nelco about the site in 1982 and initially was willing to help find an affordable means of disposal. But the options have shrunk, Aker said, as environmental regulation has tightened in the intervening years.

Now the apparent presence of PCBs in 11 of 17 barrels tested has further raised disposal costs. Under federal regulations, wastes contaminated with PCBs above certain levels must be burned in special incinerators and cannot go in landfills.

Nelco officials say the cost of getting rid of the 1,300 barrels of waste has risen from $30,000 to $300,000. Peace disputed that contention, saying he calculated the cost at more like $150,000.

The site appears to present no immediate threat to human health, though Aker said some of the drums have decayed and leaked. Officials said no toxics appear to be spreading into the air or ground water, and they say the wastes would catch fire only at very high temperatures.

“It’s generally acknowledged that the risk is low, but the risk is there,” said David Merk, a county hazardous-materials specialist. The proximity to the freeway and the trolley is a cause for concern. A fire, though unlikely, could produce an acrid, caustic mist.

The biggest worry, Merk and others said, is that the drums will continue to corrode and the waste will spread, creating a long-term problem and a more difficult cleanup.

Lawyers for the state and Nelco are to return to court in San Diego next Wednesday for a progress report on Nelco’s efforts to clean up the site. Deputy Atty. Gen. Tim Patterson said he has not decided what he will recommend if Nelco misses the new cleanup deadline.

One option would be to require Nelco to post a bond to cover the cost of disposal at a hazardous-waste landfill and an incinerator. Officials acknowledge that if Nelco went bankrupt and the site were listed for cleanup under the federal Superfund, it would be a low priority and would remain untouched for years.

In the meantime, Nelco’s lawyer, B. James Brierton, said Nelco believes that the county’s tests misrepresent the extent of PCB contamination. Brierton said the PCBs may have been concentrated in the loose oil at the tops of the barrels--the only part the county tested.

Nelco hopes this week to convince the EPA that the overall concentrations are less than 50 parts per million--the level that requires incineration. It also wants to be allowed to drain off what it believes to be the small amount of contaminated oil into perhaps 20 to 30 drums.

“That would reduce the cost of disposal (of PCB-contaminated oil) to approximately $15,000,” said Brierton. “That’s a manageable problem.”

Peace responded this week that he sympathizes with Nelco’s argument that it wants to be able to stay in business. But he added: “The line’s drawn on that argument at the point where they say we need to stay in business to the point of breaking the law.”