Escondido Council Votes to Pressure for Toxic-Site Cleanup

The Escondido City Council voted Wednesday night to join with San Diego County officials to force the state hazardous-materials agency to clean up a toxic-waste site with the money already allocated for the job.

Councilwoman Carla DeDominicis had sought council support to spend $200,000 to remove the highly volatile toxic materials from the Chatham Brothers Barrel Yard in rural southwest Escondido to an approved disposal site for toxic wastes.

But a county hazardous-waste expert told the council members that federal legislation prevents removal of the contaminated soil to a toxic-waste dump.

“Until Congress changed the law (last November), that avenue was open to us,” David Merk said. However, other methods of on-site treatment, less costly than the alternatives the state agency is proposing, should be explored so the site can be cleaned up with the $1 million remaining to be spent, Merk said.

Funding for Studies

DeDominicis pointed out that the state has spent $1.2 million to $1.5 million on studies and tests of the Chatham site, but “not one spade of dirt has been removed.”

A city-county effort to speed up the cleanup would include attempts to change the federal law so that Chatham waste could be placed in a toxic landfill. Under the effort, research into on-site treatment of the toxic wastes would be carried out.

A frustrated DeDominicis pointed out that the state Department of Health Services has been studying the problem for nearly seven years, “and, until three months ago, they could have resolved it.”

She added that the state has spent all its $100-million environmental “Superfund” allotment without accomplishing the cleanup the fund was intended to provide.

Councilmen Ernie Cowan and Kris Murphy were concerned that the city might be getting in over its head in taking on the cleanup.

“I am afraid that we are only scratching the surface” by proposing a $200,000 cleanup with city funds, Cowan said, “and that we might end up having to foot a $10-million bill for the whole thing.”

State Toxic Substances Control Division estimates for the total cleanup of the Chatham site range from $8 million to $10 million.

Merk said state officials are not considering an on-site cleanup, which could be accomplished by introducing bacteria into the soils to break down and destroy the toxic materials. That process is called biodegradation.

‘Don’t Have the Money’

“The county has the method but we don’t have the money,” he said.

He said there is a constant danger that the toxics on the site might get into the ground water unless they are removed or treated. State officials are proposing a study to determine the contamination, he said, but a cleanup would ensure that further contamination does not occur.

Both DeDominicis and Merk said future state funding for cleanup work on the more than 100 toxic-waste sites in California “is very questionable.”

Merk contends that the Chatham waste can be neutralized on site at a much lower cost than the incineration method the state proposes.

The industrial dump site has been on the state’s Superfund list since 1982. But, with no funds remaining in the state fund, there is no guarantee of a cleanup.

However, homeowners and property owners near the site have lost patience with the slow progress by the state, and have pressed for removal of the toxic wastes within the next year with $1 million in allocated state funds.

‘Very Complex’ Site

Officials of the state toxic control agency said Monday that a few other local agencies have undertaken cleanup operations, including one in the Long Beach area and a few in Los Angeles. However, they stressed that those had been “small, uncomplicated” cleanups, while the Chatham site is “very complex,” requiring extensive studies before actual removal of the toxic waste is attempted.

One state official, John Scandura, said most cities shy away from doing their own cleanups because of possible liability claims.

State officials met with a local advisory group Monday to detail new plans to use less-expensive methods of removal, but stressed that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has not yet approved using those methods for the Chatham toxics.

Scandura said his department expects to learn this week whether a less-expensive method of disposal can be used. If the toxic waste from Chatham can be deposited in approved dumps, state toxic-waste officials estimate the initial cleanup of 400 cubic yards of contaminated soil and 200 or so barrels of industrial waste could be accomplished before the end of 1989 with the funds now available.

Merk said the dispute between state and federal hazardous-waste agencies is “a matter of policy” and not a technical problem. If the Chatham site were listed as a federal toxic-waste site, the materials could be disposed of in an approved toxic dump. But, since it is not on the federal list, “another set of regulations apply” that require political clout to remove, Merk said.

Dennis Koolhaas, an aide to state Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside) said Craven, who was instrumental in allocating the last of the funds in the Superfund to the Chatham site, is monitoring the situation and is ready to aid in speeding up the cleanup.

DeDominicis, in a letter to her council colleagues, suggested that it is time for the city to do the job the state has not accomplished in seven years.

“The bottom line is the federal government and the county government have the way, but our state government doesn’t have the will to find a solution,” DeDominicis said.