Trustees OK Pierce College Toxics Storage

Los Angeles Community College District trustees on Wednesday authorized use of Pierce College in Woodland Hills and Harbor College in Wilmington as hazardous-waste collection sites under the state toxic sweeps program.

The 4-0 vote permits old laboratory chemicals, solvents and bug and weedkillers from public and private schools and community colleges to be stored at Pierce for a few days in April as they await shipment to toxic-disposal sites in California and other states.

State health and education officials, who are organizing toxic sweeps throughout California, say the program will rid Pierce and other schools of hazards at a cost they can afford.

Some Pierce staff and residents living near the campus had expressed concern about the storage plan, but only one person spoke against it before the district board.

April 11 Through 29

The motion approved by the trustees allows the collection of toxics at Pierce and Harbor from April 11 through April 29, but David Wolf, president of Pierce, said it will probably be April 25 before chemical wastes are brought to the Woodland Hills campus.

Wolf said the storage site will probably be a fenced area on the western edge of the football stadium, west of Winnetka Avenue and north of Oxnard Street.

Under a contract with the state, Torrance-based International Technology Corp., a waste-disposal firm, will pick up old chemicals from dozens of area schools and take them to Pierce, where they will be stored by type in trailers and hauled away as enough accumulate. The waste-disposal firm is to have security guards and hazardous-waste specialists on duty around the clock, officials said.

Maria Gillette, a hazardous-waste specialist with the state Department of Health Services’ toxic substances control division, said that about 80 schools are scheduled to be swept of chemicals that will be stored at Pierce, but that others might sign up at the last minute.

International Technology will bill individual schools, but they will pay less than if they contracted for the disposal. According to Wolf, Pierce expects to pay about $2,000 to dispose of its wastes, contrasted with the $15,000 it would pay privately.

Gillette said sweeps already have been made in Oroville, Redlands, Arcata, San Diego, Santa Rosa and Modesto, and one began Tuesday in Whittier.

She said the program is a response to the weak compliance by the schools to state laws concerning identification and disposal of old lab chemicals and other toxic waste. By the start of 1986, public and private elementary and secondary schools and community colleges were to have taken inventories of old chemicals and disposed of them properly.

But “a good number of schools did not even get to the point where they took an inventory,” said Gillette. Those that did “were absolutely amazed by the cost it would take to remove this stuff safely,” she said.

Gillette said some schools are finding chemicals that couldn’t legally be bought or used today. These include pesticides that have been banned or can only be applied by trained applicators.

“We’re finding a great many things that have been outlawed,” she said.