CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Marines Ordered to Remove Toxic Waste

A state water quality agency has ordered officials at the U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base near Barstow to clean up a military landfill where barrels of hazardous sandblasting waste are buried. Base spokesmen acknowledge that 55-gallon drums of the waste routinely were dumped at the landfill, perhaps as early as 1961. But the Marines say they did not know the material contained dangerous levels of lead and other heavy metals, thus requiring its disposal at a hazardous waste landfill. The order issued by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board calls the waste a threat to the area’s aquifer, the sole drinking water source for several desert communities. It requires base officials to complete the clean-up by March, 1991, or face legal action.