Truly Nolen Accused of Dumping Pesticides in Mission Valley

The San Diego County district attorney’s office is investigating allegations that a former manager of the nation’s third-largest termite control company supervised the dumping of highly toxic pesticides behind the firm’s branch in Mission Valley.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, the manager in December, 1985, directed employees of Truly Nolen Exterminating Inc. to bury the contents of a 55-gallon drum of the pesticide Aldrin on the company’s property along Mission Gorge Road and permitted workers to occasionally deposit smaller quantities of Aldrin and other chemicals into a water well on the site.

Tests conducted by state water quality officials and health authorities have shown contamination of the soil and ground water on the property where the San Diego operations of Truly Nolen are housed. The soil contains Aldrin in concentrations 1,700 times above the level that the state declares it to be a hazardous material.

Extent of Poison Unclear

But it remains unclear how far the contaminants have spread.

Officials involved with the investigation say they are worried about migration of the contaminated ground water, primarily because of the proximity of Silver Springs Water, a bottling company that draws about 75% of its water from the aquifer in the area.

Silver Springs, which rivals Sparklettes as the county’s leading purveyor of bottled water, sits less than a mile from Truly Nolen. Tests of Silver Springs’ well have turned up no evidence of the pesticides, officials said Thursday.

“Certainly we are very concerned when there are contaminants in the ground water because ground water is not stationary,” said Chris Wogee, district supervisor for the Food and Drug Division of the state Department of Health Services. “But whether it reaches (Silver Springs’ well) depends on the dynamics of the water table. It may show up there tomorrow, or it may never show up. If it does, we’ll close it up.”

Chandler Beach, president of Silver Springs, said the company has stepped up its testing program and is now drawing and analyzing water samples daily. Beach, who first learned of the contamination last week, said he is concerned about the threat but predicted that “the plume (of pesticides) will probably dissipate before it reaches us.

“Even if the plume were to get here, we would filter out all of the contaminants through our reverse osmosis process anyway,” Beach said in an interview. “Or we could draw from other sources. We do not want anyone getting overly concerned about this. We will ensure the quality of our water for our customers.”

Manager Not Talking

Paul Tremblay, Truly Nolen’s branch manager in San Diego, said he had been advised by attorneys not to discuss the matter. He did say, however, that he was personally unaware of any illicit dumping by employees and said the company “teaches and believes in the standard practices” for dealing with residual pesticides.

Truly Nolen is based in Tucson, Ariz., and has 42 offices coast to coast, Tremblay said. Its 20-year-old San Diego branch operates out of a yellow stucco building in the flood plain of the San Diego River near Interstate 8. The firm’s back fence, enclosing a large yard where Truly Nolen’s bright yellow mobile units are parked, is less than 35 feet from a tributary to the river.

The firm first came to the attention of authorities in February, 1986, when the California Regional Water Quality Control Board received a telephone call from a former employee of the firm, Daniel Gonzalez. According to board files on the case, Gonzalez detailed the alleged dumping in conversations with engineer Lance McMahan.

Soon after, an inspection of the site was conducted by McMahan and soil samples were taken. Results indicated the presence of Aldrin, Chlordane and other pesticides at various levels of contamination in the unpaved yard behind the building.

Despite the allegations by Gonzalez, the district attorney’s office was not alerted until February of this year, McMahan said. And it was not until last month that the regional water board directed Truly Nolen to conduct a hydrogeologic assessment of their property to determine how far the contaminants may have spread and what sort of cleanup effort will be necessary.

David Barker, a senior engineer with the regional board, said the investigation has taken “somewhat longer than the normal time frame” largely because the agency has been trying to keep up with San Diego’s sewage problems. Barker said the case took on new importance after a second round of tests early this year confirmed the contamination.

Investigator Assigned

When the district attorney learned of the alleged dumping, investigator Donna Blake was assigned to the case. According to the affidavit filed by Blake, Gonzalez said he came to work one day in December, 1985, to find a group of fellow workers digging a hole in the unpaved yard behind the firm. Gonzalez, a fumigator at the time, said he asked Manager Bill Reusch what the men were doing and was told they were burying material.

Gonzalez told Blake he then watched as the crew emptied a rusting, 55-gallon barrel with a label identifying it as Aldrin into the hole, the affidavit says. When he asked Reusch if it wasn’t illegal to dispose of Aldrin in such a fashion, Gonzalez said Reusch “put his finger to his mouth” and said, “Shush . . . hush,” the document says.

Gonzalez also told Blake he observed workers “on several occasions” dumping smaller containers of various pesticides into a well on the grounds. He said the well was covered with a broken cap and said he could “observe liquids and smell the odor of chemicals” in it, according to the affidavit.

Gonzalez also told investigators that Truly Nolen’s trucks, containers and application equipment were rinsed on the unpaved area of the yard on a daily basis. And he said the company grounds have been known to flood during peak rain periods.

In February, 1986, Gonzalez was fired by Truly Nolen, allegedly for excessive absences due to health problems. Reached by telephone, he declined to discuss the case with The Times.

Like DDT, Chlordane, Aldrin and Dieldrin--another of the pesticides found in the soil and ground-water tests--are chlorinated hydrocarbons, which are very persistent in the environment and can be stored for years in the fatty tissues of animals and humans.

First produced in the late 1940s, the chemicals were once widely used in agriculture. But in the mid-1970s, they were banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because they caused cancer in test animals.

Their use is still permitted, however, in the battle against termites. Albert Heier, an EPA spokesman in Washington, said additional regulatory action--either banning or further restriction--is expected by the EPA on Aldrin and Chlordane in June. Dieldrin is rarely used today because it is less effective than other materials.

Chemicals Are ‘Bad Actors’

“These are bad actors, very persistent in the environment and quite toxic, especially from a long-term exposure standpoint,” Heier said. “We have had many, many problems with misapplication of Chlordane on homes that have left many, many people sick. But until fairly recently, there have been no viable alternatives for termite control.”

Heier said that contamination of water sources by Chlordane and Aldrin has been a big problem in Missouri, where the chemicals are sprayed on the foundations of new homes and have washed into rivers and streams via storm drains.

“That stuff is carcinogenic, and you do not want it in the water--especially drinking water,” said Heier, a pesticides specialist.

Investigator Blake declined to discuss the Truly Nolen case, calling it “premature.” But her affidavit, which was filed in court to support a search warrant, notes that it is a felony violation of the state Health and Safety Code to knowingly dispose of materials considered hazardous at any location other than a licensed waste facility.

Termite control companies ordinarily reuse pesticides, primarily because they are expensive and it is costly to transport them to certified dumps for disposal. Tremblay said Truly Nolen also recycles its products and follows a “standard industry procedure” for rinsing its vehicles and equipment, using a compound called “Soak-Up” combined with sawdust to turn pesticide residue into a gel that can be used again.

“It just wouldn’t make sense, economically, not to reuse it,” Tremblay said. “There was no common sense reason for the alleged dumping.”

In addition to Aldrin, tests showed the soil at Truly Nolen to contain Chlordane in concentrations 150 times the level considered hazardous, Dieldrin at 100 times the hazardous level and DDD at 150 times that level. Results of the ground-water tests were not available.

Efforts to contact Reusch, the manager who allegedly ordered dumping of the pesticides, were unsuccessful. The water board’s file on the case said he is no longer employed by Truly Nolen.

McMahan said the tests showing contamination in the soil and ground water at the facility have placed the company under jurisdiction of the state’s Toxic Pest Control Act. Under the act, firms that have a “depression,” or pit, containing hazardous waste are required to pay administrative fees to cover staff time expended in investigating the case.

No Easy Task Ahead

Truly Nolen also must prepare a site assessment and cleanup plan to determine the extent of the contamination. That likely will involve the drilling of several wells for sampling purposes in the surrounding area.

As for cleanup, McMahan said one technique involves ringing a site with deep wells and pumping out the contaminated water, which can be treated and reinjected or discharged elsewhere. That process is costly and difficult, he said.

“Right now, it’s an unknown quantity with respect to (what sort of) containment and cleanup” will be necessary, McMahan said. “Our main concern is, of course, any contamination of the aquifer.”

That prospect is also what’s on the mind of officials at Silver Springs, which is owned by Chicago-based Hinckley & Schmitt Co., the nation’s third largest water-bottling company.

President Beach said his first step after learning of the contamination at Truly Nolen was to increase the firm’s private weekly testing program to a daily procedure.

“We can’t do much if there’s trouble with our (water) source,” Beach said. “When we first opened up, we were the furthest company out in the valley. The closest thing was the Town & Country Hotel. We were surrounded by farmland. Now, it’s obviously a different place.”

Still, Beach said, he remains optimistic that the Truly Nolen contaminants will never reach Silver Springs’ water source. He said the company’s well reaches down 1,100 feet and likely is “way below the underground river where this stuff is located.”

Wogee, the district supervisor for the state Food and Drug Division, said the answer to that question will emerge from a geologic study of the area, which will show “the way the layers of soil and rock are laid and which way the water is flowing.

“We’re keeping a close eye,” Wogee said. “These companies do have the ability to filter these things out. But I suspect that if anything is detected, then they’ll probably be looking for another source.”