Agua Dulce Residents Complain : State Agrees to Take Over Testing of Wells Near SOS

Because of complaints about the well-testing program of Los Angeles County, state water-quality officials reluctantly agreed Monday to take over the testing of private wells near the Space Ordnance Systems plants in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Robert P. Ghirelli, executive officer for the state Regional Water Quality Control Board in Los Angeles, said his agency will resume testing of private wells it last examined in 1984, during an investigation of improper waste storage and disposal by Space Ordnance, or SOS.

Ghirelli said SOS officials told him “they would be open to paying” for the tests.

Renewed Testing Requested

The 1984 tests--involving dozens of wells near SOS’ two Santa Clarita Valley plants--detected no chemical pollution in most of the wells and trace levels of solvents in some. Those results were consistent with ground-water analyses that suggested that the amount of polluted ground water that had seeped off the site was fairly small.

Nevertheless, some residents near SOS’ Mint Canyon plant at Agua Dulce last year called for renewed testing, arguing that more contamination could seep downhill from the plant into their wells. In response, Supervisor Mike Antonovich committed the county Department of Health Services to quarterly well testing.

But the county’s well-testing program has been a disaster, according to county officials and affected residents, because of the poor performance of the private lab the county hired to analyze the samples.

Problems With Lab

The lab has lost or destroyed some samples and has held others too long. It’s “really not excusable,” said Gary Lynch, an environmental health officer with the county health department.

Although the county has hired another lab, Lynch said residents of Agua Dulce “have lost faith in us.”

However, county health officials are not suffering hurt feelings, because they never wanted the job in the first place, Lynch acknowledged.

“We’re almost happy that the people out there want us out of it,” Lynch said. Speaking of the regional water board, Lynch said: “It’s their responsibility to guarantee the quality of the ground water in California.”

Ironically, the state’s decision to take over the testing was disclosed by Ghirelli after members of the regional board--holding their monthly meeting in downtown Los Angeles--said they would not decide on the request until next month.

In a report, the regional staff urged their board not to order the testing. The staff argued that the county had solved its quality-control problems, and that “the routine sampling of private water wells is not a regional board responsibility.”

But Ghirelli later said he decided to undertake the testing after SOS officials told him, during a recess in the meeting, that they would foot the bill.

“We’re just going to do it,” Ghirelli said after the meeting.

He said the about-face was prompted by “the concerns raised by the public and the board.”

Ghirelli said he hopes to make some test results available to the board at its next monthly meeting.

Alan E. Opel, director of environmental affairs for TransTechnology Corp. of Sherman Oaks, SOS’ corporate parent, later confirmed the informal agreement.

“We said we would cooperate with them,” Opel said. “The scope and length” of the testing “is still up in the air,” he said.

SOS, which last spring pleaded no contest to 10 misdemeanor violations of hazardous-waste laws and paid a $300,000 fine, is awaiting state action on a proposed cleanup plan. According to the plan, the company will remove contaminated soil at both of its plants and will extract and filter chemically tainted ground water.

Fervent Plea

During the meeting, Agua Dulce resident Karol Roff made an impassioned plea for the board to start testing the wells.

Last month, she presented the board with the results of a private lab’s analysis of two sets of tissues: from fish that died in a pond near SOS and from a pig that died at a nearby farm. The lab reported that the tissues contained significant residues of chemical solvents.

Opel on Monday gave the board a report from another private lab, which Opel said showed the analytic methods of the first lab to be riddled with “weaknesses and uncertainties.”

Even if the tissue tests were valid, Opel said, ground-water pollution in the area is too low to explain the high levels of residue.