State to Begin Chatham Toxics Cleanup in ’90

Chatham Bros. Barrel Yard, Escondido’s infamous toxic waste dump, will be cleaned up by the state starting in mid-February, a state official said Monday.

Jack Kearns, local chief of the state Toxic Waste Substance Control Agency, announced that he had “a commitment from Sacramento” for an additional $200,000 needed to remove the buried toxic sludge and about 150 barrels of waste from the former industrial solvents dump in southwestern Escondido.

Kearns told an Escondido advisory board that the funds will be available in time to allow for the cleanup to proceed on schedule.

1,500 Cubic Yards

About 1,500 cubic yards of buried waste--containing PCBs, lead, heavy metals and other carcinogens--has been found in a 19-by-60-foot area of the former disposal site.

After eight years of preparations and promises, the state toxic substances agency completed a preliminary study of ground-water pollution in and around the site in July.

The test wells showed that only acetones had migrated into the ground water outside the site, and state officials declared that the presence of the industrial solvent was not a hazard to local residents or water supplies.

But the report also showed that toxic wastes on the site were much more abundant than earlier thought, amounting to about 1,500 cubic yards of sludge that must be trucked to an approved disposal area.

State officials had budgeted $260,000 for removal of 400 cubic yards of toxics; they estimated that about $425,000 would be needed to accomplish the larger cleanup.

State toxic waste cleanup coffers are empty, with no funds available to augment the Chatham cleanup, but a bill now awaiting Gov. George Deukmejian’s signature would replenish the fund from assessments placed on the state’s major toxic-waste producers. If Deukmejian does not sign the bill (SB 475) by Wednesday, it dies. But a spokeswoman for state Sen. Bill Craven (R-Oceanside) said the legislator had been assured that the governor will approve the legislation.

Kearns said last week that he would oppose a cleanup that did not remove all toxic sludge from the site, a former industrial waste disposal yard that operated from 1941 until 1980.

Jim Marxen, spokesman for the state toxic waste agency, said that if carcinogenic materials had been found to have migrated off the Chatham site, the cleanup could have been speeded up by deleting public hearings and community education programs, which are not required if no immediate danger is found.

In the past decade, the rural residential area around the dump site has experienced a housing boom, with about 100 new homes built around the property.

Escondido city officials, concerned about the effect of the toxic dump on surrounding residents, earlier this year considered imposing a building moratorium around the site. The action was delayed until studies could be completed to determine the extent of off-site pollution.