Toxic Issue Lures 300 to Housing Site Hearing

Residents in the small west county community of Cypress have lived with the sight and smell of the huge Texaco oil storage facility in their backyards for nearly 60 years.

But after the recent revelation that soil under the so-called tank farm is contaminated with toxic wastes, many residents are vowing they will not live with the legacy of fear that has plagued communities across the nation near other toxic waste sites.

“Our first concern is that this site is cleaned up correctly now, because if it isn’t, the city will have a problem later,” Joyce Nicholson said Tuesday. “We want to make sure that this doesn’t turn into a McColl (dump in Fullerton) or a Westminster.”

Nicholson’s reference to two other Orange County areas identified as hazardous waste sites reflects the growing public awareness of health concerns related to toxic wastes and an increasing unwillingness to accept local government’s business-as-usual approach to alleviating those concerns.

Tuesday evening, more than 300 people crowded into the Cypress Community Center, where city officials held a special meeting on plans to build a housing project on the Texaco property. Many expressed strong objections about the proposed 885-home residential tract and about the traffic such a development would bring, as well as concerns about the contaminated soil and groundwater found at the last undeveloped parcel in the city.

“I think the environment in Cypress now is that the city recognizes that the grass-roots involvement of the people is important,” Paul Hertz, a resident who lives near the oil facility, said earlier Tuesday. “Two years ago, I don’t think they would have bothered as much with us.”

Hertz, a Cypress resident for eight years, said the experience of living in Upstate New York after discovery of toxic conditions at the Love Canal and the ensuing tangle over who would take responsibility, has made him especially cautious.

The area near Niagara Falls was used as a chemical dump for 10 years before a housing development and school were built on top of the site. The state eventually declared a health emergency and residents near the dump were forced to move from their homes.

But many Cypress residents point to a housing tract in nearby Westminster, one that was built atop an oil industry waste pit. Last week, the housing tract became the most recent county site to be added to the state’s Superfund cleanup list.

Tract Proposal

Cypress Homes Inc., a subsidiary of the Newport Beach-based Fieldstone Co., bought the Cypress land from Texaco and has proposed building 651 single-family homes, 234 attached town homes and a six-acre community park on the site.

The area now is zoned for low-density housing, but the developer is seeking a zoning change to increase the density. The density issue has aroused almost as much concern among residents--who fear increased traffic congestion and overcrowded schools--as news of toxic contaminants.

Many of the same Cypress residents who are watching this development most closely helped to pass a ballot initiative Nov. 3 that requires voter approval on zoning changes made on land designated for public use.

“There are many citizens who will be watching very carefully, and will raise a lot of questions every step of the way,” said Gail Kerry, a resident who lives three blocks from the Texaco site.

“But I don’t think it is just the last election that has made people more active. In the last 10 years, the level of awareness about toxic chemicals generally has been raised,” Kerry said. “We have a right to demand as much as we can in the way of cleaning up this site.”

History of Storage

The Texaco storage facility was built in 1928 and originally included 54 steel tanks, each about 40 feet tall and 145 feet in diameter, with holding capacities of 5 million gallons. Crude oil, pumped from fields in Huntington Beach and other county areas, was stored there until the early 1960s. In 1962, the company leased 40 of the tanks to Southern California Edison Co., which used them to store fuel oil for electric power plants in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The tanks were in use until this summer, said Randy Jewett, supervisor of environmental health safety for Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc. The company is in the process of dismantling the tanks; only three remain.

Jewett said the main source of contamination was found to be a network of inactive underground pipelines. Studies have identified 18 areas where leaks have sprung, but those studies also show that no contaminants have migrated from the site, he said.

Scientific field studies included in an environmental impact report prepared for the housing project showed that benzene was found in groundwater under the property at concentrations of 2.26 parts per million. State guidelines permit no more than .007 parts per million of benzene, a suspected carcinogen, in drinking water or in areas where it might come in contact with drinking water.

Low levels of such toxic substances as xylene, toluene and ethylbenzene were detected in about half of the 34 monitoring wells on the site, the report said.

Company’s Plan

The company proposes to remove nearly 40,000 cubic tons of contaminated soil and to pump out contaminated groundwater, which would be treated at the Texaco refinery water-reclamation facility in Wilmington, Jewett said. The cleanup would begin next month and would take about a year, he said.

Dixie Lass, an associate engineering geologist for the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, the state agency in charge of the Texaco site, called the cleanup plan “very good” but said the company has balked at the board’s request that it comply with state standards in the plan. California’s drinking water standard is much more stringent than the federal standard that the company has proposed to meet, Lass said.

Texaco officials have refused to estimate cleanup costs.

Contaminated groundwater has been found from 1 to 9 feet below the surface but is separated from the main drinking water supply nearly 400 feet below by a thin layer of protective clay. However, tests have not determined if that protective layer extends to surrounding areas, and Lass said it is possible that the contaminants could move off the site and reach drinking water supplies. She said Texaco has been asked to determine whether that is occurring.

Standard Uncertain

Jewett said the company has not decided if additional studies are needed. “Our position is, if drinking water standards are set to protect you and me while drinking water, those standards should be acceptable for this shallow groundwater that won’t ever be used for drinking water,” he said. “Right now we are still not sure what standard we will eventually propose to meet.”

Many residents have expressed concern that contaminated groundwater might pose a threat to several water wells located near the site, but Steven Wong, assistant director of environmental health for the county, said three wells about half a mile from the facility were tested this year and no contamination was detected. Wong said it is possible the agency would retest the wells.

At one point during Tuesday’s long meeting, resident Lloyd Kramer, who lives about a mile from the Texaco property, said: “I think the main thing that was shown . . . is that a lot of questions still need to be answered.”