Governor Urges Bonds to Speed Toxics Cleanup

Seeking to seize the initiative on the toxic waste issue, Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday called for a $200-million bond issue that would allow the state to hire more employees to work on speeding the cleanup of dump sites and leaking underground tanks.

The governor’s plan, together with a detailed proposal for spending $100 million authorized by voters in 1984, appears to meet head-on many of the complaints of his Democratic critics, including his likely election opponent, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who has accused Deukmejian of inaction.

Additional Funds

The bond issue, which would appear on the November ballot, would provide $50 million in additional funds for cleaning up dump sites, $45 million for underground tanks, and $105 million to develop technology to eliminate the land disposal of untreated hazardous waste, as was recommended Tuesday by the governor’s toxics task force.

But the plan drew a mixed reaction from key Democratic lawmakers, who faulted Deukmejian for opposing or vetoing their own remedies and for failing to spend most of the $100 million for cleanup approved by voters a year and a half ago. Some charged that the Republican governor was now merely offering as his own the Democratic programs he long had fought.

In a message to the Legislature, Deukmejian was upbeat, however, promising to “establish California as a national and international leader on this latest environmental frontier, the battle against toxic pollution.”

“I have promised the people of California I will spare no effort to keep these toxic poisons away from their homes and neighborhoods,” Deukmejian said. “The program I have outlined today marks the most substantial step to date ever taken by the state of California to attain that great goal.”

But after insisting that his goal was to move quickly to ensure that “every known (toxic) site has been rendered completely harmless,” Deukmejian cautioned that Californians should not expect a quick solution. “We won’t get there tomorrow, but we will get there.”

He also released a detailed plan for spending the 1984 bond money, subject to legislative approval, that showed how time-consuming the cleanup work is expected to be. It indicated that over the next year, the Administration believes that work will be finished on only 17 of 241 hazardous waste sites that would be tackled in the first round of cleanups.

Paying for the Work

Much of the work at individual sites would be paid for by those responsible for the dumping or with state and federal funds. When the 1984 bond money runs out, in mid-1988, only 117 sites will be completely clean, according to Deukmejian’s projection.

But Deukmejian has long known that the $100 million in state bond money would not be enough to accomplish the job, said his chief of staff, Steven A. Merksamer, who faulted the Democrats for failing to give the governor the $300 million he called for two years ago.

In briefings for reporters, Merksamer said that the governor’s proposal “is the most comprehensive, far-reaching approach to this subject any state has put forth.”

But Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) responded to Deukmejian’s message with a scathing attack, pummeling the governor for vetoing toxics bills at a time when the number of hazardous waste sites and contaminating drinking water wells has been growing.

‘In an Election Year’

“Now we are in an election year and the governor finally discovers we have a toxic waste problem,” said Brown, who complained that the Deukmejian proposal comes only three weeks before action on the 1986-87 state budget must be completed by the Legislature.

The day before, however, the Speaker seemed ready to accept a change in Deukmejian’s position on the Democratic toxics legislation the governor had vetoed. “I would guarantee you if the governor would embrace any of the proposals or implement any of the programs that have been advocated . . . in this election year, he could take full credit for it and we would acknowledge (it) in every fashion,” Brown said Tuesday.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) was both critical and conciliatory Wednesday. “It is a temptation to accuse the governor of now flip-flopping on many toxic waste issues,” he said. “But the latest flip is on the right side of the issues, such as phasing out hazardous waste landfills, providing incentives for development of new waste treatment technologies and for speedy cleanup of existing sites.”

However, Sen. Art Torres (D-South Pasadena), chairman of the Senate Toxics Committee, described himself as “galled” that Deukemjeian had for six months opposed Torres’ own $200-million toxics bond issue proposal, only to turn around and “embrace Democratic programs which he has opposed.”

Points to Actions

Merksamer insisted that Deukmejian has long been supportive of toxics cleanup. The governor in his message to lawmakers pointed to a 50% increase in toxics-related employee positions and a 182% boost in state spending on hazardous waste problems since he took office. Included in these figures were 159 additional job positions and $13 million that Deukmejian wants to add to the state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

He said Deukmejian had simply rejected the Legislature’s “piecemeal” approach to toxics legislation--preferring instead to take six or seven months to study the entire problem, with the help of a bipartisan task force he appointed last November.

“We were late in doing the lottery,” Merksamer said. “but we did it right. This Administration would rather do it a little slower and do it right than rush into it and do it wrong.”