Legislators OK Toxic Waste Inquiry--and Expand It

A legislative committee on Wednesday approved Gov. George Deukmejian’s request for an investigation of the Administration’s hazardous waste cleanup program, but the review will be more far-reaching than the governor had requested and will take at least five months to complete at a cost of $100,000.

Without a dissenting vote, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee ordered Auditor General Thomas Hayes to begin an extensive review of the Department of Health Services’ beleaguered toxics program.

The Administration’s cleanup efforts are already being scrutinized by the FBI, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a newly formed Senate toxics investigation subcommittee.

Unprecedented Step

Aware of an FBI probe into the state’s handling of cleanup contracts at several federal Superfund sites, Deukmejian last November took the unprecedented step of asking the auditor general, an employee of the Legislature, to make an independent examination of the toxics program.

Deukmejian asked that the audit examine contracting procedures and the way the department handled its investigation into the death of a 4-year-old Riverside boy, who lived a mile east of the Stringfellow Acid Pits.

Hayes told the committee Wednesday that his staff is planning to complete such a review by the end of February at a cost of $48,000.

But in the course of a lengthy hearing, which included testimony by the parents of the dead boy, the lawmakers added several months of additional work to Hayes’ assignment.

The expanded investigation will include a look at the toxics program’s hiring practices, permit activities, record keeping, community relations work and planning efforts, in addition to the Harman case and contract procedures.

The child’s parents, Steve and Diane Harman, again charged that a state investigation into how the toxics program had conducted soil sampling around their home was quashed. A state investigator and his boss both told the Harmans that they had been told to “back off” their investigation, Steve Harman said.

Toxics officials have denied the charge, saying they had simply reassigned the case to the department’s medical staff.