PCBs in Bay Blamed on Teledyne Ryan : Water Panel Study Says Defense Contractor Dumped Cancerous Chemicals Into Drains

Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, a major San Diego defense contractor, was accused by water pollution officials Wednesday of discharging cancer-causing chemicals down storm drains and into San Diego Bay.

A staff report of the state Regional Water Quality Control Board blamed the aircraft manufacturer at least in part for the unusually high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in sediments in a lagoon in the bay.

The PCB levels are among the highest ever found along the California coast, and officials called it the most significant case of contamination in the bay.

The board’s staff is recommending that the firm be required to remove all wastes from its drains and that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determine whether federal law has been violated.

“We took the position that the company is at a minimum a contributor to the problem out there,” said David Barker, a senior engineer with the water board office in San Diego. He called the PCB contamination “the most significant issue in the bay.”

“They could be the sole contributor,” Barker said. “We don’t know now.”

Barker said there is no indication that the contamination has affected human health, and the county Health Services Department has not quarantined the lagoon. However, Barker said “perhaps fish in that area would not be edible or considered healthy.”

The board staff, which has been trying for three years to pinpoint the source of the PCBs, also found smaller concentrations in a storm drain sump used by the General Dynamics Convair Division. However, that sump did not connect to the contaminated lagoon.

For that reason, the staff has proposed further sampling, and that both firms be required to check their sumps for PCBs and lead content. The water board staff is also considering whether to refer the Teledyne Ryan case to state or county law-enforcement officials or to propose fining the company.

Attempts to reach executives at Teledyne Ryan for comment Wednesday afternoon were unsuccessful. Officials are expected to meet today with the board staff, which on Monday will present its report to the full Regional Water Quality Control Board.

PCBs are man-made chlorinated hydrocarbons that were used for many years as fluids in transformers and capacitors. Further production was banned in 1978 in light of evidence that they cause cancer in animals and have other health effects on humans.

PCBs still exist in pre-1978 equipment, however. They can be found in transformers, capacitors and welding machines currently in use at Teledyne Ryan, environmental officials say. In 1980, an EPA inspection of the firm found inadequate handling, storage and labeling of materials containing PCBs, and last September, Cal-OSHA, the state occupational health agency, cited Teledyne Ryan for 232 violations and fined it $34,000, according to the water board report.

The presence of PCBs in the bay was first detected through a statewide toxics testing program initiated in 1979. As part of the program, water quality officials began placing pristine mussels in San Diego Bay and later testing their tissue for toxicity.

From the first year, PCBs began showing up in mussels in Convair Lagoon, a small inlet across from the east end of Harbor Island. The lagoon is used by a sailing club associated with General Dynamics; it has no park, but there is public access.

In 1979, PCB concentrations in mussels in the lagoon reached 1,800 parts per billion, the second-highest level found that year along the California coast, according to the water board staff report. The 1982 levels reached 7,300 parts per billion--the highest level the program ever detected.

By 1983, the report states, the concentration at one testing station had tripled to 24,000 parts per billion. Equivalent to 3.79 milligrams per kilogram, that level approached the 5.0 level at which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends banning PCB-contaminated food.

That “action level” has since been cut to 2.0--below the 2.1 levels found in the mussels in 1985. But Barker said the lower level found in mussels last year does not necessarily indicate a reduction in the presence of the persistent chemical, since the data tends to vary.

Furthermore, numerous international, national and state agencies have disagreed on what is an unsafe level of PCBs in sediments and fish tissue. The National Academy of Sciences, for example, set a safe fish-tissue level of only 0.5 milligrams per kilogram.

Through extensive sampling of sediments in storm drains and sumps beginning in January, 1984, and continuing into this year, the board staff concluded that at least some of the PCBs in the sediments had come down Teledyne Ryan’s storm drains in “illicit discharges.”

Barker said it is not known when the discharges took place, because PCBs persist for years in the environment. However, the report said the firm “may be continuing to discharge various industrial wastes into the storm drain system tributary to Convair Lagoon.”

The staff will recommend Monday that the board order Teledyne Ryan to remove all wastes and contaminated sediments from its storm drains and apply to the board for a permit dictating how it will manage its wastes to avoid further contamination.

The staff will also recommend that the board decide how to penalize the firm, possibly by referring the case to the state attorney general for civil litigation or to the county district attorney’s office for criminal prosecution.

The report also recommends informing the EPA of the water board staff’s findings, on grounds that the agency “may wish to initiate enforcement . . . for violations of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.”

Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical and its predecessor have occupied the site at 2701 Harbor Drive near Lindbergh Field since the 1920s. The facilities there include engineering, manufacturing and production areas, research and testing labs, and office space, the report states.

The main plant operations include fabrication and assembly of airframes for aircraft, and the materials used include cutting oils, lubricants and cleaning solvents. Because the firm generates hazardous wastes, it is regulated by the county Department of Health Services and the federal EPA. According to the report, a 1980 EPA inspection found “inadequate procedures for the handling, storing and labeling of PCB-containing substances” at the time.

The shortcomings included an inaccurate inventory of PCB items at the site; a lack of a required annual report on PCBs and PCB items, and leaking PCB oil from a transformer. Also, 20 gallons of PCB oils listed as stored there could not be located by employees, the report said.

In addition, Cal-OSHA, the state occupational health agency, last September cited the firm for 232 violations of the California Administrative Code, the water board report found.

The alleged violations included mislabeling and non-labeling of chemicals, storage of chemicals in open or leaking containers, lack of training for employees in handling and disposing of wastes, and improper disposal of hazardous substances, including a chemical spill in the storm drain system.

Cal-OSHA’s action resulted in a $34,000 fine and a requirement that Teledyne Ryan initiate a hazardous waste-management system to prevent further threat of worker exposure to hazardous chemicals, the water board report states.