Steel Firm Says It Can’t Comply With Order to Remove Toxins

An Anaheim steel salvage firm has yet to comply with a July 15 order by the city to rid its property of some 44,000 tons of residue containing toxic PCBs.

Orange County Steel Salvage Inc. can’t comply because “there’s nowhere they can take that,” said Floyd L. Farano, the company’s attorney.

Farano asked the City Council Tuesday for a rehearing on his client’s request for an extension of a one-year permit to store the hazardous waste at 3200 E. Frontera Road. But the City Council, which denied that request July 15, postponed a decision on whether to grant a rehearing until Aug. 19, when it will consider shutting down the company’s operation altogether.

Notified of Violation

Orange County Steel was notified in February that it is storing hazardous waste in violation of state law. Owner George Adams Jr. has submitted independent test results showing levels of PCBs well below the state maximum of 50 parts per million for solid waste.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are known to cause cancer in rats and mice and liver damage in humans. Their manufacture was discontinued in the United States in 1976.

Farano said more samples were taken jointly last week by the state Department of Health Services and Orange County Steel, and both will conduct tests to determine the level of PCBs. The results are expected next week, Farano said.

No Threat to Water Supplies

Soil test results submitted by Adams last week to a state water quality board show that lead and other contaminants from the shredder waste pile have not migrated more than 18 inches into the soil below and have not seeped into nearby drinking water supplies, a board spokesman said Tuesday.

“It confirmed there is not an immediate water quality problem posed by the storage of shredder waste on the site,” said James R. Bennett, executive officer of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.

But Adams still faces civil fines of up to $76,000 for failing to meet deadlines for submitting the results of soil tests ordered by the board last December. Bennett said Adams did not comply until July 30 and then only after repeated prodding and threats of civil fines.

The nine-member board will be asked whether to impose the fines at a hearing Friday in Newport Beach.