Ground-Water Cleanup to Be Ordered at Dump

Cancer-causing contaminants have leaked into the ground water from a landfill in northern Lancaster, and state officials say they plan to order a cleanup.

The ground-water contamination at the 100-acre Lancaster Landfill, which is run by the world’s largest waste company, is serious but does not pose an immediate threat to nearby drinking water supplies, water quality officials said Friday.

“We think this landfill is leaking, and we need to further characterize the extent of the contamination,” said Hisam Baqai, supervising engineer with the state Regional Water Quality Control Board’s office in Victorville, which oversees the Antelope Valley.

The landfill’s operator, Waste Management of North America, was required to complete a search this summer for ground-water pollution. State law says all California landfills must perform such tests.

The testing found excessive levels of five pollutants, including at least three cancer-causing substances, in monitoring wells that were dug on the landfill site and nearby, Baqai said. Other testing showed contaminated water had flowed off landfill property to the southeast.

About half-dozen houses are near the landfill, located at 600 E. Avenue F. But Baqai said those people’s wells draw water from depths of 200 to 300 feet. The pollution was found at about 80 feet. However, it could spread, he said.

“This is an important thing,” said Rick Schuff, an environmental engineering manager for the Illinois-based company. “It’s something we’re working hard to resolve. But I don’t think this is an environmental disaster for the Antelope Valley.”

Waste Management provides residential trash collection in Lancaster.

Schuff said the company will install a system this year to extract and burn methane gas from the landfill. By next year it plans to install a well to extract and treat the ground water. State officials said they plan to issue a formal cleanup order within a month.

The testing found vinyl chloride and the solvents trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, all carcinogens, at levels exceeding state standards for drinking water, Baqai said. The testing also found excessive levels of methylene chloride and an organic contaminant called trans-dichloroethylene, he said.

Neither state nor company officials could say how the contaminants got into the landfill, which has been in operation since the mid-1950s. But they speculated that the source could have been household refuse or commercial waste in years when disposal standards were more lax.

Waste Management took over the landfill in the 1970s, Schuff said. It also runs the Bradley West Landfill in Sun Valley, the Simi Valley Landfill and a group of residential and commercial trash collection operations in Southern California.