Carson Seeks Ways to Clean Up, Develop 157-Acre Dump Site

The Carson Redevelopment Agency unanimously agreed Tuesday to seek proposals to clean up and develop a 157-acre hazardous waste dump near the intersection of the San Diego and Harbor freeways.

Although Carson does not own the Cal Compact dump site, the city believes development proposals could speed resolution of a protracted battle in federal Bankruptcy Court about one of the largest undeveloped parcels in the Los Angeles area.

The city’s request suggests that the property between Main Street and Avalon Boulevard near the freeway crossroads of the South Bay can best be used for commercial, high-tech or light-manufacturing purposes.

Carson is seeking a developer with financial resources and expertise in handling properties contaminated with hazardous waste. The proposals are due by July 16.

In previous years, plans for the development of the land have included a mobile home park proposed by one-time fireworks magnate W. Patrick Moriarty, a high-rise hotel and office complex suggested by Newport Beach developer Jorge J. Yavar, and a football stadium for the Raiders sought by Carson officials.

Legal, Environmental Problems

But nothing can be built until a thicket of legal and environmental problems surrounding the grass and weed-covered dump site are resolved.

State officials say the land contains an estimated 1.2 million barrels of liquid hazardous waste, legally dumped at the landfill in the 1960s.

“Everyone involved with the site believes there are hazardous materials at the site,” said Jim Marxen, spokesman for the Toxic Substances Control Division of the state Department of Health Services.

Heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides and solvents have been found in the soil, and petrochemicals, paints, dyes, resins and salts are believed to have been dumped there, Marxen said. Methane gas also has been detected, and ground water under the landfill is believed to be polluted, Marxen said.

The dump site was used extensively by oil companies to dispose of oil drilling mud, waste paint, tank bottom sludge, solvents and waste oil.

Study and Cleanup

Current plans call for a two-year study beginning this summer to determine the extent and type of wastes present, Marxen said. That work will be paid for by two companies that had used the site to legally dispose of wastes. It is unclear who would pay for the cleanup, which would take an additional two years. The cleanup--one of the largest ever in Southern California--is not expected to be completed until September, 1993, at the earliest, a prospect that does not please Carson officials.

“We would like to get the four years underway,” City Atty. Glenn R. Watson said. Preliminary drilling and testing to determine the extent of the pollution problem is expected to cost up to $2 million, Watson said. The price tag for cleaning up the property could range from $15 million to $40 million, he said.

Watson said the city wants to expedite development of the blighted land at the gateway to Carson. If necessary, he said, the city might use its eminent domain power to acquire the land. “The property ought to be developed,” he said. “It has been tied up in Bankruptcy Court for three years.”

The land is owned by a partnership, World Industrial Center Ltd., which is controlled by Robert A. Ferrante, an Orange County businessman.

Ferrante is the former owner of Consolidated Savings Bank of Irvine, which was seized by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. in May, 1986. The S&L; had outstanding loans secured by the Carson property.

Banking Agency

Carol Schatz, the FSLIC’s western region deputy director, said the federal agency welcomes “the city of Carson’s effort to solicit a qualified developer.”

Schatz said the agency looks forward to negotiations that will lead to a reorganization plan in Bankruptcy Court.

After taking over Ferrante’s failed savings and loan, the FSLIC contended in a lawsuit that Consolidated Savings Bank lent millions of dollars to Pyrotronics Inc., the Anaheim-based fireworks company once headed by Moriarty.

In the early 1980s, Moriarty headed a partnership, Casa Del Amo Estates, that leased the Carson dump site. Casa Del Amo tried unsuccessfully to develop the land as a mobile home park, but state health officials blocked the project because of concern about hazardous waste problems.

Moriarty’s Conviction

Moriarty pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges in 1985 relating to kickbacks paid to an official of the California Canadian Bank and city officials in Commerce and was sentenced to federal prison. After serving 29 months of a five-year term, he was released last November.

The release came in an agreement with federal prosecutors, who dropped mail fraud convictions relating to the bribery of Commerce officials to obtain a poker license for the California Commerce Club. Moriarty agreed not to appeal the convictions in the bank case. The agreement followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowed use of mail fraud statutes in political corruption cases, making it virtually certain that Moriarty’s convictions would be reversed.

Last year, the state ordered 14 companies it said are responsible for dumping hazardous wastes at the landfill to begin studies to identify the extent of the pollution problem.

Only two of the companies, BKK, Corp. and Chansler Ogden, a transport company, have responded to the state’s order, Marxen said. “The other 12 are out of compliance.”

The companies that have not responded include Chevron, Arco, Unocal, Shell, Conoco, Mobil, Texaco, Buttram Oil Co., Long Beach Oil Development Co., Allied-Signal Inc., Deutsch Co., and Del Amo Gardens Inc., Marxen said.