3 Congressmen Ask Superfund Money for Bay Cleanup

Three Southland congressmen asked Wednesday that the federal Environmental Protection Agency study Santa Monica Bay to see if the pollution-laden body of water might be eligible for a cleanup financed by the agency’s Superfund.

The request came in a letter from Reps. Mel Levine, Henry A. Waxman and Anthony C. Beilenson, all Democrats, to EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas and cited three main sources of pollution in the bay:

-Barrels holding cyanide and PCBs dumped in the bay beginning in the early 1940s.

-Disposal of wastes into the bay by an El Segundo oil refinery.

-The City of Los Angeles’ sewage spills.

The congressmen pointed out that state authorities have warned both swimmers and fishermen away from part of the area and added, “We realize financial resources are limited, but if we wait too long, the situation may be beyond repair. The polluted condition of Santa Monica Bay is extremely serious and poses environmental and health hazards.”

EPA spokesmen in Washington and San Francisco said Wednesday that Thomas had just received the letter and could not immediately respond. Usually, Superfund money is used for abandoned landfills and land-based toxic dump sites. But, they said, the placing of a body of water, such as the bay, on the Superfund list of waste sites requiring immediate attention is not without precedent.

However, one of the spokesmen, San-Francisco-based Al Zemsky, said placing the bay on the Superfund list for emergency cleanup would require showing of “an imminent public health hazard and, up to now, there has been no imminent public health threat.”

Meanwhile, the state Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials scheduled a hearing on the bay’s problems for Friday at 10 a.m. in Santa Monica’s City Council chambers at City Hall, 1685 Main St.