Bipartisan Group Selected for State Toxics Task Force

Gov. George Deukmejian on Saturday named a bipartisan mix of political leaders, environmentalists, academics and businessmen to a high-level task force charged with finding a safe way to dispose of poisonous waste.

The state must either deal with the toxic waste problem or face further environmental damage and the possibility of “shutting down major industries,” Deukmejian said in his weekly statewide radio address.

Deukmejian announced Wednesday that he would form the 22-member Governor’s Task Force on Toxics, Waste and Technology and that it would be headed by UC Riverside Chancellor Theodore Hullar, a biochemist. Saturday, he released the names of others who will serve on the task force and issued an executive order establishing the panel.

Those appointed include Democratic Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and the ranking Republican and Democratic members of the Senate and Assembly committees responsible for toxics programs-- Sens. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) and Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos Hills) and Assembly members Sally Tanner (D-El Monte) and Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos).

Hullar, who has said he hopes to have the group working by mid-December, was an active member of the Sierra Club when he lived in New York State and describes himself as an environmentalist. Two other environmentalists were chosen--Michael McCloskey, chairman of the Sierra Club, and Peter A. A. Berle, president of the National Audubon Society.

Academic Members

Dr. Joseph Van Der Meulen, vice president of the USC School of Medicine, and James Adams, professor of industrial engineering at Stanford University, will also serve on the panel, along with several key Administration officials and representatives of cities, counties and the business community.

The governor released the names of all task force members except two industry representatives who will be designated later.

Other members selected are:

Larry Naake, executive director of the County Supervisors Assn. of California; Don Benninghoven, director of the League of California Cities; State Finance Director Jesse R. Huff; State Water Resources Director David N. Kennedy; State Water Resources Control Board Chairman Raymond R. Stone; State Health Director Kenneth Kizer; Jan Sharpless, state secretary of environmental affairs; Judith Ayres, regional administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (an ex-officio member); Allan Zaremberg, deputy legislative secretary for the governor’s office (ex-officio member); and Alex R. Cunningham, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources, who will be executive director of the task force.

Inquiry Asked

Formation of the task force came just a day after Deukmejian, in a surprise move, asked the state auditor general to conduct a full investigation of the Department of Health Services’ contracting procedures on toxic waste cleanup projects. On Wednesday, the governor learned that the FBI was conducting its own investigation of the agency.

On top of that, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has questioned the way the state spent a part of $28.5 million in federal toxic waste cleanup money and is demanding a full accounting. And the Democratic-controlled Legislature cited numerous points of criticism in rejecting two Deukmejian proposals to reorganize toxics programs in September.