Old Toxics Deposit Adds New Delay to Downtown Busway

Construction crews working near Union Station have run into a heavy underground concentration of hazardous wastes, throwing the $25-million San Bernardino Freeway busway being extended into downtown Los Angeles at least three months off schedule, The Times has learned.

The semi-volatile toxic deposit, buried in sandy soil, was discovered only a few feet from the freeway--and less than half a mile from the downtown Civic Center--when workmen dug into the ground to plant footings for the bridge that will carry the one-mile busway extension over the Los Angeles River.

State and county experts identified the wastes as vaporous chemicals that they believe seeped into the soil from a coal gasification plant that occupied the site near the west bank of the Los Angeles River during World War I. Officials said an evaluation has not been made of the extent of underground contamination.

Unusually Large Amount

However, Jim Smith, program manager for the state Department of Health Services’ Toxic Substances Control Division, said samples taken from the site showed an unusually heavy concentration of toxic materials. This concentration, he explained, is much heavier than the contamination from metal and organic materials at the notorious Willco dump in Lynwood--which is in the path of the Century Freeway-Transitway--but probably is not as extensive.

Already plagued by numerous delays, the downtown busway project was planned to enhance the 11-mile San Bernardino Freeway busway, one of the Los Angeles area’s few transit success stories. Since 1973 the reserved high-speed lanes have given buses and car pools clear sailing between El Monte and Mission Road just east of the central business district.

The one-mile extension, spanning the Los Angeles River and paralleling the downtown section of the Santa Ana Freeway, will complete the busway to Alameda Street at Union Station.

Found at Vital Spot

California Department of Transportation officials said the toxic deposit was uncovered May 1 at a spot considered vital to the construction schedule. It is at this point, adjacent to the heavily traveled Santa Ana Freeway, that piers were being sunk for the initial section of the two-lane busway bridge when workers unexpectedly exposed the hazardous substance.

“They ran into some smelly material digging for the foundation of a pier about one quarter-mile east of the railroad property, and we immediately stopped that part of the job,” said John Reeves, chief of construction for Caltrans here.

The material, he said, smelled like creosote. Observers recalled that city workers at the Piper Center across Ramirez Street complained of headaches and the strong odor after the underground deposit was exposed. At the site, workers fenced off a 100-foot-square area around the smaller, irregularly shaped toxic patch and posted “No Trespassing” signs.

A worker for C.C. Myers Inc., the firm building the busway extension, said the toxic substance was gray and looked like sand when it was initially discovered. Asking not to be identified, he said specifications for the busway project called for workmen to dig to a depth of 20 feet for the bridge footing, but at eight feet they hit a brick and concrete wall, smelled the odor and spotted the grayish substance.

“We didn’t know what it was,” he said. “Samples were sent to Sacramento and we were told to stay out of the area. The ground was covered with plastic and 1 1/2 feet of fresh dirt was spread over that to seal it off.”

With the material covered, county and state health officials said the vapors, while toxic, were not a threat to anyone in the area or to motorists driving on the nearby freeway. Traffic along that freeway stretch consists of about 150,000 cars and trucks a day. The construction site, however, is obscured from the roadway by a temporary “gawk” fence which went up as soon as work on the busway extension was started in March.

County and state health officials said there was no way to determine the extent of the underground contamination until samples from the area are analyzed.

However, Bonnie Shear, an industrial hygienist with the county Department of Health Services’ hazardous waste control program, said that while the toxic deposit posed a public health hazard, she doubted that the contamination was extensive. She identified the chemicals as naphthalene and anthracene, both coal-tar derivatives capable of causing respiratory or neurological problems.

Smith of the toxic control division said the material would have to be disposed of before construction work resumes near the site, causing a further delay of at least another month. Myers crews have been working on other phases of the project but nevertheless feel they have lost two months because of the hazard.

Meanwhile, Caltrans’ Reeves said that any fears that the busway extension, scheduled to take 2 1/2 years to build, would have to be scuttled were laid to rest at a meeting in Sacramento Monday. He said all public agencies involved, including the Federal Highway Administration, voiced their support of the project despite cost increases from the unexpected delay and expenses involved in hauling away the hazardous material.

He said Caltrans’ first step is to determine the extent of underground contamination, a task that probably will take at least another month.

“We believe we can build the piers around the deposit, taking whatever precautions are necessary,” he said. “We’ll run into some hazardous material (when digging) and that will have to be carted away. Of course, there are a lot of ‘ifs’. . . .”