Monterey Park Dump Termed Too Perilous to Go Off U.S. List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has placed the Deukmejian Administration on notice that a 45-acre Monterey Park dump site that the state wants to exclude from the federal Superfund cleanup list contains potentially explosive pockets of methane gas and such cancer-causing chemicals as benzene.

In a letter to state Health Services Director Kenneth W. Kizer, EPA Regional Administrator Judith E. Ayres reaffirmed her opposition to the state’s proposal by ticking off a list of contaminants unearthed at the Operating Industries dump site.

Ayres told Kizer that studies for Monterey Park conducted during the last three years have shown, among other things, that soil samples collected at two locations contained as much as 54% methane gas--concentrations that she said were “explosive.”

She also said the studies found 84 parts per billion of the solvent benzene in the soil on the same 45 acres and 6,400 parts per billion of lead.

Keith Takata, the EPA’s Superfund branch chief in San Francisco, explained on Wednesday that, in his agency’s view, these “are elevated levels” that potentially could be dangerous. “We ought to know what the problem is” before anything is built at the site, he said.

No Threat to Public Seen

Kizer, however, has maintained that the area in dispute presents no threat to public health or safety and should be dropped from the federal Superfund list. James Crisp, vice president of BCL Associates in Long Beach, which conducted the studies for Monterey Park, said the sample levels were “extremely low” for everything except lead.

The EPA expects to decide within the next month whether the 45 acres north of the Pomona Freeway will remain on the list eligible for Superfund clean-up money. State and federal officials agree that the remaining 145 acres south of the freeway should be on the list.

One issue raised in the last few days is whether the state’s position has been influenced by the owner of the property, Operating Industries, which contributed $19,250 to Gov. George Deukmejian’s first gubernatorial campaign.

Deukmejian has acknowledged that several owners of Operating Industries are his friends, but he and Kizer insist that nothing improper took place when Kizer went to Washington in January in an effort to persuade EPA officials to take the 45 acres off the list. Removal from the list would open the way for construction of a freeway interchange and commercial development.

Kizer’s actions have clouded his confirmation as director of health services. The Senate Rules Committee last week routinely recommended his approval to the full Senate. But then the outcry erupted over the campaign contributions and his stance in siding with Operating Industries, and he asked to reappear before the committee to provide an explanation.

In the wake of the controversy, Kizer sent Ayres a letter, challenging her to provide evidence of serious problems on the 45 acres. He said most of the acreage “does not pose any public health hazard” and that only one six-acre segment has “significant contamination” of heavy metals. He said the prospective buyer of the land--Transpacific Development Co. of Torrance--has agreed to clean up the contaminated segment.

Kizer was reported to be unavailable for comment Wednesday, a state holiday. His spokesman, William Ihle, said Ayres’ letter dated Monday had not arrived.

Patrick Raher, a Washington lawyer for Transpacific, insisted that the levels cited by Ayres are not hazardous. Raher contended that EPA merely wants to keep the 45 acres on the list so it can use a portion for a staging area to clean up the pollution on the adjoining 145-acre parcel. Takata agreed that EPA would like to install cleanup equipment on the disputed 45 acres.

Contributing to this report was Times staff writer Paul Jacobs.