Cleanup Set at Atwater Toxic Site

After months of delays, state health officials have ordered a cleanup of dangerous asbestos, lead, zinc and other toxic materials in the soil and debris at a former ceramics manufacturing plant in Atwater to begin next week.

On Monday, teams from private contractors specializing in the handling of toxic contaminants will begin removing piles of asbestos and more than 42,000 cubic yards of lead-contaminated soil and waste from the former Franciscan Ceramics plant, Hamid Saebfar, project supervisor for the state Department of Health Services, said Tuesday.

More than 1,000 families and businesses within a mile radius of the plant at 2901 Los Feliz Blvd. have been notified of the plan.

State health officials said notices were delivered door-to-door and mailed out last weekend, more than a year after dangerous asbestos was discovered at the site in October, 1988. The notices were for informational purposes, not warnings to take precautions, officials said.

Work was to have begun last fall, but was delayed repeatedly because the landowner, Schurgin Development Corp. of Los Angeles, had not reached agreement with the state on details of the cleanup, state officials said.

However, a spokesman for the developer said agreements were reached several weeks ago and work was to begin as soon as financing for the project was completed.

Schurgin promised to pay the bill for the cleanup, estimated last year by the landowner at $13 million. But that figure has skyrocketed to $42 million, according to a report by the Los Angeles Community Development Department. Department officials could not be reached to explain the increase.

The cleanup is expected to take about eight months, Saebfar said. Excavating equipment and construction trucks will operate weekdays from from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The contaminated material and asbestos will be hauled to the Kettleman Hills toxic waste facility in the San Joaquin Valley.

Schurgin plans to build a major shopping center on the 45-acre site, one of the largest remaining undeveloped parcels of land near downtown Los Angeles. More than $14 million in federal and state funds have been allocated to the developer to be used, in part, to purchase the site and clean up the contamination.