Just 4 Offers to EPA Rated ‘Good-Faith’ : Stage Set for Negotiations on Burbank Water Cleanup

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that four Burbank-area companies submitted “good-faith” offers to contribute to the $70-million Superfund cleanup of polluted ground water in Burbank.

The announcement set the stage for further negotiations with those companies and 27 others that either ignored an EPA request for financial contributions or made offers that the agency deemed inadequate. The agency said the “good-faith” offers provided a basis for extending settlement discussions with all 31 firms until Oct. 6.

By far the largest offer came from Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. of Burbank, which revealed three weeks ago that it had proposed spending up to $52 million to help restore use of Burbank’s municipal water supply wells, presently shut down because of chemical pollution.

The EPA refused Friday to disclose the amounts of the other two good-faith offers, one made by Weber Aircraft and the other a joint offer by Stainless Steel Products and Sunhill Partners and Uhlmann Offices, owners of Stainless Steel’s production site.

Lockheed Encouraged

A spokesman for Lockheed said Friday that the company was encouraged that its $52-million proposal is considered a good-faith offer.

Executives of Weber, which recently moved from Burbank to Fullerton, could not be reached for comment.

An attorney for Stainless Steel, a producer of aerospace components at 2980 N. San Fernando Blvd. in Burbank, would not say what the company offered, but that it was a substantial amount.

The EPA last spring told 31 companies and property owners that they were “potentially responsible” for Burbank’s serious ground-water pollution and gave them until July 7 to make offers to help pay for a cleanup system, estimated to cost about $70 million, or face possible legal action. The deadline was later extended to Aug. 7.

Time to Study Responses

For nearly three weeks after the deadline, EPA officials would not discuss the responses, saying they needed time to study them.

They barely broke their silence Friday, saying they would not discuss dollar amounts or other specifics proposed by the companies. EPA spokesman Terry Wilson said such details “are exempt from disclosure . . . especially in this very sensitive time of negotiations.”

However, the agency said that nine companies and property owners did not respond and that the responses from 18 others were “not considered good-faith offers.” Included in this category were firms that said they did not pollute and would not pay, firms that sought more time to conduct soil and water tests to establish their innocence or guilt, and firms that offered money but not enough.

The EPA told Lockheed, Weber and Stainless Steel in separate letters that it wasn’t accepting all provisions of their offers.

And while the agency previously suggested that those failing to make good-faith offers would be shut out of negotiations and might be sued, the EPA said Friday that it hopes to reach agreements with all 31 parties, even those that have refused to respond.

Any firm that does not take part in the settlement sought by Oct. 6 “will be considered a non-settlor against which EPA retains all of its enforcement options,” the agency said in letters to the firms. The EPA could issue formal cleanup orders and obtain court orders to enforce them, or could bring civil suits seeking cleanup funds and damages from companies it believes contaminated the ground water.

10 Wells Closed

Burbank normally depends on its municipal wells for about 20% of the city water supply, but all 10 city wells have been shut down for about three years because of chemical pollution. In seven of the wells, levels of perchloroethylene or trichloroethylene, suspected cancer-causing solvents, exceed health standards. The city has stopped pumping the other three wells for fear of drawing in plumes of contaminated ground water, and instead is buying more expensive water from the Metropolitan Water District.

The EPA called on those responsible for the pollution to fund and operate a $70-million cleanup system that would extract and treat 12,000 gallons of water per minute, enough to meet nearly three-fourths of the city’s water demands.

A vast area of the San Fernando Valley, including Burbank, has been designated for ground-water cleanup under the federal Superfund program, which has targeted about 900 toxic waste sites nationwide as needing priority attention.

The $8.5-billion Superfund is a revolving fund to be replenished by contributions from polluters. The EPA can spend money for cleanups and then seek to recover the funds from those responsible, but prefers to have responsible parties pay at the start, as it is trying to do in Burbank.