Toxic Wastes Found Under Westminster Homes

‘We’re trying to determine the danger to the residents, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface.’

--John Scandura, state health official

A suspected cancer-causing substance and other poisonous chemicals have been found in low levels in an abandoned toxic waste dump beneath a Westminster housing tract, according to preliminary results of tests by state health officials.

The suspected cancer-causing substance, benzene, and two other toxic hydrocarbon solvents--xylene and toluene--are similar to substances found at the McColl dump site in Fullerton.

For years, traces of a tar-like sludge had been seeping into swimming pools and backyards in the Westminster tract, which is just east of the San Diego Freeway near the Golden West Street off ramp. But earlier this year the sludge began appearing in greater quantities, prompting tests of soil, water and gas samples by the state Department of Health Services that were completed last week.

“There is no immediate health threat,” said John Scandura, a supervisor in the department’s Los Angeles office. But Scandura said he could not guarantee that breathing the vapors or being in the vicinity of the sludge would not have any long-term health effects.

“It’s one of the things we don’t know, but are trying to find out,” Scandura said. “The biggest problem is the very low vapors and gases that are there now. Not because they can cause an explosion, but our concern is the long-term health effects of breathing them for 20, 30 years. We’re trying to determine the danger to the residents, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface.”

The state is preparing a report, expected to be released next month, and state health officials are scheduled to meet with county, city and water district officials this Friday to discuss the preliminary test results. The meeting is intended for representatives of the agencies, but Scandura said the public will not be excluded.

The housing tract was built by J.T. Hintz Co. after a sump used for decades by oil refinery companies was removed from the site, according to state officials. Scandura said officials now believe the area was used as a dump site from as early as the 1930s through 1958, when the developer bought the property.

When the sump was dug up, the wastes in it were moved to two large nearby trenches that then were covered with concrete and soil, he said.

“Then,” Scandura said, “they built homes over it.”

When Maxine Richey, a state toxic substances control division official, compiled an assessment report last May, she found that the original sump was believed to have been seven acres in size.

The development company no longer exists, Scandura said, but state toxics officials are attempting to contact its owner or his relatives to determine which refinery companies used the site and how much toxic waste was dumped there.

Last week, residents in the tract expressed mixed emotions about their community’s safety and future.

“Sure, the state says, ‘It’s safe--don’t worry about it.’ Then immediately after that they say, ‘Don’t get near it, touch it or let your pets and children eat it,” said Melissa Burns, a mother of two who also is expecting twins.

Of the 73 homes in the tract, residents in at least 25 have been affected in some manner, according to those who live there. Parents have complained about children coughing and experiencing dizziness and nausea. There also have been complaints of rotten-egg odors, and others say the sludge, because of its acidic nature, has caused cement floors and patios to lift and crack.

“All my children have developed terrible coughs since we’ve moved in,” said Ann Reihl, a mother of five who has filed a lawsuit against the person from whom she bought her house and a real estate agent for allegedly failing to disclose information. “What gets me is the city has known about this since the tract was developed, but very little has been done to alleviate the problem.”

Last summer, a state-hired private environmental company sent workmen garbed in protective suits into the neighborhood to drill core samples and take gas measurements.

“When they first came with their white suits, boots, face masks and everything, it was pretty scary,” recalled Burns, who with other residents watched for weeks as workmen sank holes, measured gases, took samples and monitored air quality--all just steps away from homes.

But Scandura emphasized there are no short-term health threats and stressed that the toxic substances identified in the tract were present in low levels.

Xylene was found in a concentration of .72 parts per billion in shallow ground water not used as a source of drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum allowable level in drinking water is 2 parts per billion, Scandura said.

He said tests of drinking water in Westminster showed chemical levels well below the EPA’s minimum standards.

“The municipal water districts in Orange County take their water from the deeper aquifers, not the shallow ones,” said senior water engineer Robert Holub, with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board in Riverside. “Also, you will find that in Orange County there is a confining clay layer averaging about 60 to 100 feet down. So any ground water that percolates to the surface is confined (above the clay layer).”

But state water experts like Holub are unsure how trustworthy the clay layer is, noting that there is no way of knowing for instance, about “breaks” in it.

“They didn’t test deep, but now that we’ve apparently found some contamination, we’re going to recommend they check lower for any deep water contamination,” Holub said.

A state toxics official who has researched inter-agency reports found documents indicating that a 1,800-foot-thick water-bearing zone is located 130 to 175 feet below the Westminster neighborhood.

Residents like Debbie Gill say they are concerned about parallels between the situation in their neighborhood and the McColl dump site in Fullerton, where World War II oil refinery sludge was dumped.

Gill said she and other residents don’t want to experience the same, decades-long wait before the sludge is cleaned up.