Deukmejian Backs Bid to Aid Friends’ Dump Sale

Gov. George Deukmejian disclosed Friday that he is backing state efforts to remove from federal toxic cleanup controls a 45-acre Monterey Park landfill site belonging to political supporters who contributed $19,250 to his first gubernatorial campaign.

The governor, commenting for the first time about efforts initiated by the state Department of Health Services to remove the property from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund cleanup list, described owners of Operating Industries Inc., which owns the now-closed landfill site, as “friends of mine for a long, long time.”

The friends were identified as Operating Industries majority stockholders Mike Harabedian, Jack Arakelian and Tim Agajanian.

However, the governor said at a news conference in East Los Angeles that he had never talked about the landfill with his friends, Deukmejian said state officials had advised him that removal of the parcel from the Superfund list would not pose a major public health problem.

Widespread Interest

The issue has generated widespread interest, because removal of the 45-acre parcel from EPA controls would clear the way for sale of the property for more than $7 million and open up it up for commercial development. Monterey Park officials have already laid the groundwork for the project and say it will create 3,000 new jobs and generate an additional $1 million in sales tax revenues for the city. However, the prospective buyers of the property have made it clear that they will back out of the sale if the parcel is put on the Superfund list.

Deukmejian said state and local officials “are in accord” that the parcel could be developed without posing a health problem, even though past inspections have detected carcinogenic vinyl chloride gases, potentially explosive methane gas and other hazardous materials at the site.

He noted that the 45-acre parcel is part of a larger landfill of between 180 and 190 acres owned by Operating Industries and said most of the hazardous waste problems are on other parts of the property.

Proposed Deal

Proposed plans to develop the property call for the remaining acreage to remain on the Superfund list, which ranks in order the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites to establish priorities for allocating federal cleanup dollars. The proposed deal to sell the property calls for proceeds from the sale of land to be used to clean up the contaminated acreage.

The governor was backed up in his assessment of the problem by Health Services Director Kenneth W. Kizer, who made a trip to Washington last month to personally appeal to EPA officials to take the 45-acre parcel off the Superfund list.

Kizer said the problem stemmed from the fact that the landfill included parcels north and south of the Pomona Freeway. He said the acreage south of the freeway was contaminated and deserved to be on the Superfund list, but he asserted that only a small portion of the 45-acre parcel north of the freeway had been used as a dump site and therefore, could be cleared for development.

“My staff feels strongly that the 45 acres north of the freeway does not present a public safety problem,” said Kizer, interviewed in Sacramento.

Kizer said he was not aware of the campaign contributions.

“They’re irrelevant to any decision we make,” he said.

Deukmejian was in East Los Angeles to give the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department a state helicopter to be used for aerial patrol to identify toxic waste sites in canyon areas and hard to reach spots.

Brief Ceremony

The governor answered questions about his connection with owners of Operating Industries after a brief ceremony with Sheriff Sherman Block.

According to records compiled by Legi-Tech, a computerized information retrieval service, the firm made six separate contributions to Deukmejian in 1981 and 1982, including payments to his campaign of $10,000, $5,000, $1,250, and three of $1,000 each.

Deukmejian said the contributions were “not a factor” in the Administration’s decision to ask the EPA to remove the 45-acre parcel from inclusion on the Superfund list. The governor said, “I wasn’t involved at all in the decision that was made” to appeal to the EPA.

The governor conceded that there was “a difference of opinion” over possible health dangers but said, “There are apparently a number of very knowledgeable people in that field who disagree with the EPA.”

Keith Takata, EPA branch chief in San Francisco, said in a telephone interview that the federal agency currently considers the two parcels as one site and was resisting efforts to divide it into two.

“The entire site has severe environmental problems,” Takata said.

The EPA official said not enough is known about the 45-acre parcel.

Lacks Data

“There’s not enough data to say there’s not a problem. That’s why it should be retained with the southern parcel as one site,” Takata said.

Assemblyman Charles M. Calderon (D-Alhambra), who represents the area, agrees.

“I’m against any portion of that landfill being yanked off the federal Superfund list,” Calderon said.

The assemblyman said the area represented “a potential time bomb,” expressing concern that commercial development could lead to a health threat to people who worked or shopped in the developed area.

Douglas Shuit reported from Los Angeles and Mark Gladstone from Sacramento.