Teledyne Ryan Disputes Claim It Polluted Bay

Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, accused of at least partial responsibility for high levels of cancer-causing chemicals in San Diego Bay, Tuesday challenged the evidence that state water-quality officials say indicates the giant defense contractor is to blame.

Addressing the allegations in detail for the first time, a Teledyne Ryan lawyer questioned both the sampling methods that water-quality officials used and the conclusions they drew concerning polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) pollution in one corner of the bay.

“The data obtained to date simply do not support any allegation that there has been dumping of PCBs in Convair Lagoon by Teledyne Ryan or any other firm,” Patrick J. Cafferty told the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Nevertheless, in spite of “the fact that the data is ambiguous and does require further analysis,” Cafferty said Teledyne Ryan is willing to clean up a storm drain sump that the board’s staff says contained sediments heavily contaminated with PCBs.

He also offered the firm’s assistance in further studies of contamination in the lagoon, in analyzing “potential PCB discharges from storm drains and other sources,” and in developing proper techniques for measuring PCB contamination in the bay.

The board’s executive officer, Ladin Delaney, said the board would take Teledyne Ryan up on all those offers except the last one. Noting that several different labs found PCBs in the samples, he said, “I don’t think you’ll be able to fault the regional board’s sampling.”

The board will issue a cleanup order for the sump and any others “wherever we can be very certain that Teledyne Ryan is the problem,” Delaney said. He said the board will also require the firm to apply for a permit detailing steps it will take to avoid discharges into the bay.

The board staff its continuing its investigation into sources of pollution in the lagoon.

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

They still exist, however, in pre-1978 equipment, including transformers and capacitors in use at Teledyne Ryan’s Harbor Drive plant. In 1980, the federal Environmental Protection Agency accused the company of inadequate handling and storage of items containing PCBs.

Last week, the water-board staff released a report that blamed Teledyne Ryan at least in part for high PCB levels in the nearby Convair Lagoon. The levels are among the highest ever found through the state’s program of using mussels to monitor toxic pollutants in water.

The report stated that board engineers had traced the high levels of PCBs found in lagoon sediments to a sump attached to a storm drain running through Teledyne Ryan’s property. Though they found lower PCB levels in a General Dynamics sump, they largely faulted Teledyne Ryan.

On Tuesday, at the board’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting, Cafferty challenged both the methods that board engineers used to trace the PCB pollution as well as the findings they drew from data that Cafferty insisted are contradictory and inconclusive.

First, Cafferty argued that six of the nine mussel-tissue samples showed PCB levels “well below Food and Drug Administration tolerance levels for food products.” He said only one sample, since 1982, showed an especially high level and levels had been dropping since then.

Next, Cafferty questioned the board’s sediment tests, saying findings were inconsistent and contradicted company tests on the same samples. He said the highest finding, from 1983, needs further analysis to determine “whether or not it’s a sampling anomaly or a real number.”

“PCBs are very difficult to analyze for,” Cafferty said. Especially when working with sediment samples, he said, “It’s very easy for a lab to make a mistake.”

Cafferty also argued that the board staff’s findings must be put in perspective, taking into account regulatory limits on PCBs, the manner in which PCBs are used at Teledyne Ryan, and other possible sources of contamination in the lagoon.

He pointed out that the state does not define a material as a hazardous waste unless it contains PCBs on concentrations of 50 parts per million or more. Cafferty said the highest level the board found in sediment was 34 ppm.

By contrast, Cafferty said that in a notorious case of PCB pollution in Illinois, levels reached 520,000 ppm.

“There is no comparison,” he concluded. “ . . . The levels here simply do not support any allegations that there has been dumping. They are low levels that at most indicate small releases of PCBs . . . and it’s difficult to say where those releases may have come from.”

Cafferty said that since 1978, Teledyne Ryan has used PCBs only in transformers and capacitors. Most of those are indoors, where any leak would not run into a storm drain, he said. Those outside are surrounded by curbs, he said.

Asked whether he was denying any possibility that PCBs from a leak might have accounted for the contaminated sediments in the sump, Cafferty said it was impossible to say, based on the data available.

He suggested to the board that it consider Lindbergh Field, where he said there may be hydraulic equipment containing PCBs. He also suggested that derelict boats stored by the Coast Guard in the lagoon may have leaked PCBs into the water.

Finally, Cafferty argued that the board staff focused narrowly on only three storm drains, at least two of which go through other property. He accused the staff of failing to consider 22 other storm drains that he said Teledyne Ryan officials found in the area.

Board staff members have said they concentrated on the three drains that emptied nearest the sediment containing high PCB levels. Senior engineer David Barker said they did check a number of the drains Cafferty cited but found no PCB contamination.

In his own presentation to the board Tuesday, Barker detailed the five-year investigation that led the board staff to Teledyne Ryan. He said it began with alarmingly high PCB levels in lagoon mussels, then led to sediment and finally to drains.

Barker said the particular PCB isomer that began showing up was a type used in aircraft manufacturing. He said that investigators found that the higher PCB levels were concentrated in the small lagoon southeast of Harbor Island.

They found three drains heading into the lagoon and began sampling sediment. “We were not sampling actual discharges,” he said. “We were sampling for hints of past discharges.”

They finally focused on a drain leading only from Teledyne Ryan’s property, Barker said--”rather an obscure place to sample. Actually, we only sampled it as an afterthought.”

“By that time we were getting confirming results that there were high concentrations of PCBs there and that Teledyne Ryan had at some time dumped waste containing PCBs into that line,” Barker said.

“The numbers are jumping all over the place, but the trend is that these numbers are high enough to indicate that there is some problem in that line,” he said.

In response to questions from the board, Barker said he could not say how long the PCBs had been there or how long ago they might have been discharged. He pointed out that PCBs are extremely persistent in the environment, having a half life of 100 years or more.

However, he said “the PCBs we found in Teledyne Ryan’s drain may continue to bleed into San Diego Bay,” even though investigators found no indication of continued discharges. For that reason he said the firm should be required to clean up the sumps.

Barker said it might be premature but the staff was recommending that the board make plans for “further enforcement action.” That might include contacting state and county law-enforcement authorities for possible civil or criminal prosecution.

“I see those things as way down the road but it’s not too early to start thinking about them as a final result of this investigation,” Barker said.

However, the board made no decision Tuesday on whether to inform other authorities.