Pierce College to Be Roundup Site for Schools’ Toxics

The Pierce College campus in Woodland Hills will become a collection point for hazardous chemicals during a statewide campaign to eliminate dangerous materials from science classrooms, officials said Thursday.

Professional toxic-waste handlers will operate from the Winnetka Avenue campus for up to five days in November or December as they retrieve chemicals from public and private schools and junior colleges in northern Los Angeles County and Ventura County, officials said.

The “chemical sweep,” as state school administrators call it, will be the largest statewide school cleanup ever staged, they said. California schools were ordered in 1984 to remove dangerous chemicals from classroom storage shelves.

Separation of Liquids, Powders

At Pierce College, hazardous-waste experts will separate liquids and powders removed from school science labs by chemical type, said William Andrews, coordinator of the project for the state Department of Education.

From there, the experts will transport radioactive wastes to Washington state or Nevada and send toxics that can be burned to incinerators in Arkansas or Texas, he said. Less harmful chemicals will be sent to the Casmalia landfill, a private dump in Santa Barbara County that is licensed to accept such wastes.

Local schools and school districts will pay for the chemical removal, although the mass collection will probably save most schools from 50% to 80% of what individual toxic pickups would cost, said Andrews.

International Technologies, a San Pedro-based hazardous-waste handling company, will collect the chemicals. Andrews said the company will operate 15 other sites across the state as part of the project. Other Los Angeles-area collection sites will be at Harbor College in Wilmington and Rio Hondo College in Whittier, he said.

International Technologies officials were busy handling earthquake-related chemical spills Thursday and were unavailable for comment. But Pierce College officials said trailers to be used during the collection will be under 24-hour guard by the company.

They said that the California Highway Patrol will help plan the transportation of chemicals to and from the campus and that Los Angeles Fire Department officials will be provided with emergency plans in case of a spill on campus.

Campus Termed ‘Out of the Way’

“The state asked us to participate because this campus is out of the way and discreet,” said David Bush, building and grounds administrator for Pierce College.

William Norlund, the college’s vice president for administration, said staff members are being informed of the collection plan.

But the short-term chemical storage was condemned Thursday by Sid Elman, a political science professor who is campus chairman of the college district’s teachers union.

“I can’t understand why the state doesn’t use one of its yards it has scattered around in the middle of nowhere,” Elman said. “If there was a spill here, it would create quite a bit of havoc. We have at least 20,000 people using this campus.”

State officials said local junior and senior high schools have been given until Oct. 17 to provide inventories of chemicals to be discarded to International Technologies. A list of 192 dangerous chemicals has been distributed to principals.

“Ours are identified, located and ready for movement,” said Donald Zimring, assistant superintendent for business at the Las Virgenes Unified School District at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley.

At Chatsworth High School, chemistry teacher Frank Salata said eight bottles of old or hazardous chemicals, such as arsenic trichloride and chromium trioxide, have been placed in a padded box for pickup by waste handlers.

Jack Waldron, safety director for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said his school system has already begun removing such chemicals from classroom and storage-room shelves. International Technologies Corp. and another company are disposing of the materials.

Waldron said the district’s former system of storing chemicals at a warehouse on Balboa Boulevard in Van Nuys, which drew criticism from state officials last year, has been phased out.

Waldron said safety strips attached to shelves at chemical labs earlier this year prevented serious breakage and chemical spills during Wednesday’s earthquake. He said no spills were reported at schools in the Valley.