Metal-Finishing Firm Ordered to Act Quickly on Toxic-Solvent Seepage

Water quality officials met Thursday at an Orange metal-finishing firm to determine the extent of new groundwater pollution by a toxic solvent found in “startlingly high” levels at the plant.

The suspected carcinogen PCE, or perchloroethylene, was first discovered late last week to exceed by 44 times the maximum health limits in groundwater wells at Aerochem Inc. on Batavia Street north of Taft Avenue, authorities said.

Test results released Thursday show that PCE at levels of five times the maximum have spread at least 300 feet south of the plant, David G. Argo, Orange County Water District chief engineer, said.

Fearful that the pollutant could reach nearby public drinking water supplies, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board said Thursday that the agency will insist that Aerochem representatives “expedite cleanup” while seeking the source of the PCE.

“At the moment, it is not contaminating anybody’s water supply,” said Neil M. Cline, manager of the Orange County Water District, which found the PCE as part of a state-mandated testing program for groundwater contamination. “But if it is not attended to quickly, it could become a serious problem.”

It is the third pollution incident in three years at the chemical milling firm, which has 300 employees and has been based in Orange since 1967.

In April, 1984, highly toxic hydrofluoric and nitric acids leaked from tanks into the soil and the groundwater below. The firm has been pumping out contaminated groundwater since last July under the regional board’s direction.

Last Feb. 20, thousands of gallons of a corrosive liquid overflowed a holding tank on the site. The 10% sodium hydroxide solution flowed into the nearby Santa Ana River, killing many small fish. Aerochem representatives pleaded no contest Wednesday to polluting state waters and paid a $1,700 fine, Deputy Dist. Atty. Diane Stavenhagen Kadletz said.

At the Thursday afternoon meeting, Argo said, Aerochem was given 15 days to define the extent of the PCE contamination and begin cleanup.

Argo said he gave Aerochem officials “what we think is an acceptable containment strategy” and told them to implement a cleanup within 15 days.

The plan includes sinking four new wells on the site at varying depths to see how deep the chemical has migrated, Argo said. More wells would be sunk about 500 feet south to see how far, and in what direction, the plume has spread.

But a company official said Thursday that the firm started taking “immediate steps” to resolve the situation when it first learned of the problem in a March 28 water district letter.

“Aerochem Inc. has taken steps to identify, contain and remove concentrations of (PCE), a common cleaning solvent that has been detected in monitoring wells underneath (our) chemical milling plant,” Gene M. Griffith, Aerochem’s vice president of operations, said in a prepared statement.

“We recognize and accept our responsibility to conduct our business in a safe manner. We are confident that this quick action on our part will eliminate the problem,” he added.

Griffith declined to describe those actions, saying: “I can’t really discuss anything else at this time.”

Water district engineers found PCEs for the first time last week while examining groundwater at Aerochem for another chemical, known as Freon 11, which has been found in a widespread plume from northwest Orange to southeast Anaheim.

“We found startlingly high levels of PCE” in four of five wells at Aerochem, Cline said. PCE concentrations ranged from a high of 177 parts per billion to a low of 20 ppb. The limit for drinking water is 4 ppb.

Aerochem uses large amounts of PCE as a degreasing agent, but Griffith said the company has never used Freon 11.