Lockheed Outlines Plan to Clean Up Groundwater

Officials of Lockheed-California Co. on Friday submitted to city and state officials the outline of a plan to reduce groundwater contamination beneath the company’s Burbank plant, just hours before a deadline imposed by a state regulatory agency.

The outline described a 24-week program for removing the most serious contamination found beneath Lockheed’s oldest plant in a study by the company and state water-quality officials.

That study provided strong evidence that Lockheed had contributed to the contamination that forced closure of more than 30 municipal water wells in Burbank and North Hollywood because of pollution by two chemicals believed to cause cancer.

State water officials said they had long suspected that Lockheed was contributing to the pollution because the plant used the two industrial solvents--trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, known as TCE and PCE--in large amounts in previous years.

The reduction measures proposed Friday included construction of contamination extraction wells, surface treatment systems and air inlet wells.

Committee to Monitor Cleanup

The report also suggested formation of a committee composed of representatives from Los Angeles, Burbank and state water quality officials to monitor the cleanup, Lockheed officials said.

The state Regional Water Quality Control Board must approve the outline before Lockheed can proceed with specific plans. Lockheed spokesman Ross Hopkins said a more detailed plan would be submitted to the board by Sept. 18.

A spokesman for the board said Friday that the agency would not comment on the Lockheed plan until Tuesday, to allow time for analysis.

Spokesmen for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Marvin Braude, who also had asked Lockheed to submit the plan, also said they had insufficient opportunity to study the outline.

The board wrote to Lockheed on Aug. 7, ordering the plant to initiate a plan by Friday to end groundwater contamination.

The letter was the result of the discovery of high concentrations of the two hazardous solvents beneath three buildings of the Lockheed complex that borders Burbank Airport, according to a study by Lockheed and the regional water quality board.

According to the study, the most serious contamination was found beneath Lockheed’s oldest plant, a triangular building bounded by Empire Avenue, Victory Place and the Southern Pacific Railroad line.

The study concluded that one groundwater sample taken beneath the building contained 12,000 parts per billion of PCE, which is 3,000 times the state-set limit of 4 ppb. In addition, 1,600 ppb of TCE was detected in the same place, 320 times the state TCE limit of 5 ppb.

The plant, which has been in operation since the 1930s, has been the center of Lockheed’s plating and painting operations, which require the heaviest use of PCE and TCE, Lockheed officials have said.

The highest concentrations of PCE and TCE were detected in a test well near an area where Lockheed recently dismantled a “clarifier,” a series of cement-lined ponds in which solid waste was allowed to settle out of waste water before the water was piped to Burbank’s sewer system.

The other two buildings where groundwater contamination was detected will undergo cleansing, Hopkins said.

Beginning in 1980, high concentrations of PCE and TCE were detected in Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wells in North Hollywood and wells supplying Burbank. About 15% of Los Angeles’ drinking water comes from San Fernando Valley wells, with the water piped mainly to customers in south and central Los Angeles.

By 1986, more than 30 of the area’s 80 wells were closed because they were found to be contaminated by excessive levels of TCE and PCE.