15 Sites in California Added to Superfund Cleanup List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday added 170 hazardous wastes sites to the federal Superfund priority cleanup list, including 15 in California.

Among the 15 are the controversial Operating Industries Inc. landfill in Monterey Park which has become embroiled in the gubernatorial campaign, and several in Los Angeles, Glendale and Burbank where drinking water wells have been contaminated by industrial solvents.

The EPA announcement brings to 703 the number of Superfund sites in the nation, including 34 in California. The sites are considered to pose a serious long-term threat to human health and thus qualify for federal funds for cleanup efforts.

$7-Billion Cost Estimate

The total estimated cleanup cost is $7 billion, according to Harry Seraydarian, director of the EPA’s Toxic and Waste Management Western Division.

The EPA on Tuesday also proposed another 45 sites for the priority list, including Waste Disposal Inc., a now-closed landfill in Santa Fe Springs where hazardous chemicals including cancer-causing agents have been detected in the soil just above an aquifer. However, the EPA said it believes that the shallow aquifer is not used for drinking water.

Following a 60-day public comment period, the nominated sites could be added to the final priority list.

All 170 sites that made the Superfund list on Tuesday had been previously proposed, a step which usually assures their final selection.

After the Monterey Park site was proposed for the Superfund list, the state Department of Health Services, backed by Gov. George Deukmejian, sought to remove the northern third of the 145-acre Operating Industries dump from the list, arguing that the segment was not a major threat to health.

The dump is owned by long-time Deukmejian friends who contributed more than $19,000 to his 1982 gubernatorial campaign and another $3,360 this year, and who want to sell that section to developers for $7 million.

EPA Regional Administrator Judith E. Ayres in February rejected the state’s plea, declaring that the dump is riddled with potentially explosive pockets of methane gas and such cancer-causing chemicals as benzene.

On Tuesday, however, Keith Takata, chief of the EPA’s Superfund branch at the agency’s regional headquarters in San Francisco, conceded in a telephone interview that data on the northern 45 acres is sketchy.

Could Be Removed

“It doesn’t show it’s going to be a huge problem, but it’s enough to make us want to look into it before we remove it from the list,” he said. “Based on the limited data we have, there is going to need to be some cleanup. It just may not be quite as extensive as the southern parcel.”

If a nine-month to one-year evaluation of the northern section concludes that no cleanup is necessary, Takata said it would be removed from the Superfund list.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, has accused Deukmejian, a Republican, of catering to hazardous waste polluters and has repeatedly referred to the Operating Industries controversy.

Deukmejian has acknowledged that the dump’s owners have been “friends of mine for a long, long time,” but said he has never talked to them about the issue.

William Ihle, spokesman for the Department of Health Services, on Tuesday again denied that political considerations were involved. He characterized the differences with EPA as “a disagreement among scientists.”

Contaminated Wells

The contaminated drinking water wells in Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale draw their water from San Fernando Valley aquifers that have been contaminated with toxic chemicals, especially trichloroethylene, known as TCE. The chemical is a clear, colorless liquid used mainly as a degreasing solvent in metal industries and as a household and industrial dry cleaning solvent.

The seriously tainted wells have either been shut down or their water is being mixed with less contaminated water to bring concentrations down to acceptable levels.

The 15 California sites added to the final Superfund list are:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale; Beckman Instruments, Porterville; Intel Corp., Mountain View; Intel Magnetic, Santa Clara; Intel Corp. III, Santa Clara; Louisiana-Pacific Corp., Oroville; Operating Industries Inc. landfill, Monterey Park; Raytheon Corp., Mountain View; San Fernando Valley Area I, Los Angeles; San Fernando Valley Area II, Los Angeles/Glendale; San Fernando Valley Area III, Glendale; San Fernando Valley Area IV, Los Angeles; South Bay Asbestos (formally known as Alviso Dumping Areas), Alviso; T. H. Agriculture & Nutrition Co. (formally called Thompson-Hayward Chemical Co.), Fresno, and Westinghouse Electric Corp., Sunnyvale.