The State - News from June 27, 1988

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials proposed adding the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to the nation’s Superfund hazardous waste cleanup list, joining 242 sites on the priorities list, 31 of which are located in California or Arizona. The EPA has targeted 21 “problem” areas on the Orange County base, from buried drums of explosives and low-level radioactive waste to PCBs and water contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE, which is a cancer-causing agent, said Terry Wilson, an EPA spokesman. Three public wells, used for irrigating crops in the Irvine area, have already been contaminated with TCE, widely used by the air base as a degreasing agent to clean aircraft engines, said Jim Reilly, water quality director for the Orange County Water District.