San Diego : Exterminator to Pay $25,000 for Toxic Tests

The San Diego branch of a nationwide exterminating company has agreed to pay the county $25,000 for the cost of testing for chemical contamination on its property in the San Diego River flood plain, the district attorney’s office announced Tuesday. Groundwater at the site has been contaminated by toxic pesticides known to persist in the environment and cause symptoms including nausea, tremors, coma and respiratory failure.

Under the agreement, Truly Nolen Exterminating acknowledges the contamination by the pesticides Aldrin, Dieldrin and Chlordane on its property in Mission Valley along Mission Gorge Road but does not admit violations of environmental laws.

A series of tests conducted by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board over the past two years revealed that the soil at Truly Nolen contains Aldrin at 1,700 times the level the state considers hazardous, Chlordane at 150 times the hazardous level and Dieldrin at 100 times the hazardous level.

The contamination of the ground water has not so far affected the water sources for a local bottling company that obtains about 75% of its water from an aquifer in the area, according to David Barker, a senior engineer for the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Truly Nolen has already spent more than $300,000 cleaning up the site, but has not projected the total cost and time of cleanup, according to Steve Casey, spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

Truly Nolen came under investigation in 1986 when a former employee called the state water-quality agency to complain that a manager was ordering employees to dump chemicals at the site.