High Levels of Water Pollution Found Beneath Rockwell Plant

High levels of solvents have been discovered in ground water beneath the Rockwell International Corp. plant in Canoga Park, according to test data filed with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Although the chemical pollution--apparently from leaky underground tanks or piping--is widespread beneath the 56-acre complex on Canoga Avenue, officials with Rockwell’s Rocketdyne division and the water quality board say the contamination poses no immediate threat to any supplies of drinking water.

Water from monitoring wells at the plant contained up to 26,000 parts per billion of the metal degreaser trichloroethylene, or TCE, according to test data recently submitted by Rocketdyne consultants to the water quality board. Two other common industrial cleaning compounds--perchloroethylene, or PCE, and 1,1,1-trichloroethane, or TCA, were found in the ground water at levels of up to 17,000 ppb and 57,000 ppb, respectively.

The ground-water tests also revealed benzene concentrations of up to 6,000 ppb and levels of petroleum hydrocarbons, including some toxic compounds, as high as 7 million ppb.

Known Carcinogens

TCE and PCE have caused cancer in test animals, and are suspected human carcinogens. Benzene is a known human carcinogen.

According to state advisory health standards, levels of TCE and PCE in drinking water should be kept below five ppb and four ppb, respectively. The advisory health limit for benzene in drinking water is 0.7 ppb and for TCA the limit is 200 ppb. Health authorities say people drinking water that exceeds these limits over a lifetime might slightly increase their risk of cancer or other long-term health problems. The ground water at Rocketdyne that greatly exceeds these limits is not used for drinking.

Rocketdyne officials say there are about 50 public and privately owned wells within a one-mile radius of the plant, but that all of the wells are inactive. The Department of Water and Power’s Reseda well field near the intersection of Saticoy Street and Vanalden Avenue is about 2.5 miles down-gradient from the plant, but DWP officials say those wells have been pumped only rarely over the past 15 years.

The Rocketdyne plant is about 15 miles from DWP and City of Burbank water supply wells in the eastern San Fernando Valley, some of which have been closed because their water exceeds advisory state health limits for TCE or PCE.

‘Can’t Be Left There’

Mel Blevins, senior hydrologic engineer with the DWP, said it would take many years for the pollutants from Rocketdyne to reach the East Valley wells because ground water moves at “one 50th the speed of a snail.” However, he added that ground water in the West Valley “ultimately finds its way to the North Hollywood wells . . . so it can’t just be left there.”

Michael Francis, an environmental control specialist at Rocketdyne, called the contamination “a significant problem.” But he noted that there is no evidence yet that the pollutants have migrated off the site or have seeped below the shallow layer of ground water in which the test wells were drilled. That ground-water layer starts about 15 feet from the surface and is at least partially confined by a belt of clay underneath, according to Rocketdyne consultants.

In an Oct. 11 letter to the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Francis outlined a program of further testing by Rocketdyne to gauge the vertical and lateral extent of pollution. The work, estimated to take about four months, will include drilling wells into deeper ground-water deposits and testing water from existing off-site wells not in use now.

It also will include testing for leaks in more than 30 underground tanks. Francis said that, over the next three years, all underground tanks at the plant, regardless of their condition, will be replaced with more easily monitored above-ground tanks or with buried tanks with double walls.

‘It’s Limited’

Of the additional ground-water testing, Francis said: “I’m hopeful that we find nothing . . . that we caught the problem in time and it’s limited” to the shallow ground-water zone.

Nonetheless, Francis said, the company probably faces a major cleanup even if the contamination is mostly confined.

The Rockwell plant is one of at least four in the area operated by giant aerospace firms where chemical pollution from leaky tanks or other sources poses a potentially serious ground-water problem. The others are Rockwell’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the Lockheed-California Co. complex in Burbank and the Northrop Corp. plant in Newbury Park.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is on the state Superfund list of priority toxic-waste sites because of extensive pollution by TCE and other chemicals that were spilled or leaked from waste ponds. Francis said the company intends to pump out and clean tainted ground water there by building an aeration tower that will evaporate solvents.

135 Buried Tanks

At the Lockheed plant along Hollywood Way in Burbank, company consultants have been checking the integrity of about 135 buried tanks, and soil tests have revealed high levels of petroleum and solvents in several areas.

In one instance, soil taken 30 feet beneath a cracked concrete holding basin contained 3.8 million ppb of PCE in the soil--an extremely high level.

In September, a few hundred yards from this hot spot, water samples taken from an inactive Burbank supply well were found to contain extremely high PCE levels of up to 1,300 ppb and TCE concentrations as high as 320 ppb.

Chemical Hot Spots

Despite the discovery of several chemical hot spots in soil, there is no evidence yet that pollution from Lockheed tanks has penetrated to ground water, which is about 150 feet below the area around the plant. However, a ground-water monitoring plan recently submitted by Lockheed to the Regional Water Quality Control Board should establish whether Lockheed has contributed to the ground-water problem.

Lockheed is proposing to drill seven to 10 monitoring wells. Some would be near the northern and western--or up-gradient--areas of the plant, while others would be down-gradient wells.

According to officials, a comparison of pollutant levels in the up-gradient and down-gradient wells should establish whether contaminants are coming from Lockheed or are flowing beneath the plant from other industries to the north and west.

Officials of the water quality board, the DWP and Burbank are reviewing the Lockheed proposal as to the placement and number of monitoring wells. Each well will cost Lockheed from $16,000 to $20,000 to drill, according to the company.

‘No Conclusive Evidence’

Lockheed, which also is removing or abandoning some of its underground tanks, wants to get on with the testing because “we take our corporate responsibility very seriously,” according to Robert Miland, director of environmental affairs for Lockheed-California.

But Miland said that “there’s no conclusive evidence at this point that we are the contributors to any ground-water contamination.”

At the Northrop Corp. plant on Rancho Conejo Boulevard in Newbury Park, very high levels of solvents were found in soil and ground water after the company exhumed several tanks last spring. Since then, pollution also has been found in springs a short distance from the plant, although the springs aren’t used for drinking water.

The company and the Regional Water Quality Control Board are designing further studies to determine the extent of contamination and devise steps that might be taken to capture tainted water beneath the plant before it moves off-site.