Toxic PCBs Found in Runoff Water From Fire at Salvage Yard

Samples of water taken at an Anaheim auto salvage firm where a fire erupted Sunday evening contain toxic PCBs and high levels of benzene, a toxic liquid that could pose a threat to drinking water, health authorities said Wednesday.

Even though the water is contaminated, it may have to be discharged into county sewer lines, county health officials said.

“The benzene is a potential problem for drinking water, so we would want to move (the water) quickly,” said James Bennett, executive officer of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board. If no other solutions are found, “we will get authorization to discharge it into the sewer,” he added.

A spokeswoman for the Orange County Sanitation Districts said that although her agency had not yet received a formal request to discharge the contaminated water into its sewer lines, “historically, our board has been consistently committed to helping in any way we can to clean the environment.”

The spokeswoman, Corinne Clawson, said the amount of PCBs involved “is not that high. It might not even cause us to exceed our discharge limits at this point. . . . It’s doubtful that it would have any impact on the environment.”

The county sanitation districts have been plagued in recent years with excessive levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a suspected carcinogen, in sewer lines.

Bennett said health officials are soliciting independent firms to treat the water to remove as much contamination as possible before its disposal, but he said the chances of finding a firm to do the job are “remote.”

Nearly 200,000 gallons of water runoff from fire hoses has accumulated in a large, blackened pool near a mound of auto debris that ignited Sunday in the yard of Orange County Steel Salvage Inc., 3200 E. Frontera St.

The fire spread from the smaller pile of auto debris to a 50,000-ton mound of shredded auto and appliance residue laced with toxic levels of PCBs.

On Monday, the water agency and the county sanitation districts began testing the runoff water and sewer lines to determine whether contamination had spread.

Health officials said earthen dikes placed around the 12-acre yard apparently prevented any of the water from seeping from the site and that there appeared to be no immediate health threat.

But results of testing indicate that the water contains low levels of PCBs and high levels of benzene, Bennett said. PCBs were found in amounts of 0.17 parts per million. Bennett said the sanitation districts bar any PCB-laden discharge from entering sewer lines. Benzene was found in levels of 30 to 40 parts per billion. Under state health laws, benzene is not supposed to be found in drinking water at levels of more than 0.7 parts per billion.

In addition, testing indicates that the water contains lead, copper and zinc at levels above the sanitation districts’ standards, Bennett said.

Bennett said the danger that benzene might contaminate drinking water supplies was a greater threat than PCBs entering the sewer system.

“The sanitation district has had past problems with PCBs in the sewer system, and we don’t take discharging PCB-laden water into the system lightly,” Bennett said. But the level of PCBs in the runoff amounts to less than half a pound, while the sanitation districts discharge more than 225 million gallons of water a day through the sewer system, he said.

Times staff writer Jess Bravin contributed to this story.