Beleaguered Defense Firm Sold, to Leave Santa Clarita : Environment: SOS’s decline stems from its 1984 conviction for illegally dumping toxic chemicals.

Space Ordnance Systems, the troubled Santa Clarita Valley defense contractor that was convicted of illegally dumping toxic chemicals, has been sold to an Arizona firm and will relocate to Phoenix sometime this year.

Officials with TransTechnology Corp., the parent company of SOS, traced the firm’s decline and eventual sale to the discovery of tainted soil and water at two Santa Clarita Valley plants in 1984 and the ensuing controversy and expense surrounding the cleanup of the plants.

“We have never really been able to overcome the environmental problems that we had,” Burl Alison, a TransTechnology vice president, said Tuesday. “It just hurt for a lot of years.”

Disclosures of the illegal dumping caused annual company revenues to fall from $30 million in 1984 to $9 million today, Alison said. The company, which once employed 400 workers, now has 67 employees.

SOS was purchased at an undisclosed price by Universal Propulsion Co. of Phoenix. The purchase, announced Monday, becomes effective May 31. SOS, which moved to the Santa Clarita Valley from El Segundo in 1967, produced flares and explosive devices used in the aerospace and defense industries.

The sale marks another chapter in one of the more bitter and controversial episodes in the Santa Clarita Valley in recent years.

The problems at SOS produced tumultuous public hearings attended by hundreds of valley residents, lawsuits against the company by homeowners living near the plants and accusations that the toxic chemicals had caused four cancer deaths in one family.

The controversy began in March, 1984, when health and law enforcement officers raided the company’s two plants in Placerita and Mint canyons during an investigation of hazardous waste violations.

Investigators found that SOS had improperly stored 1,000 barrels of waste and illegally disposed of water tainted by solvents, dumping it into creek beds and spraying it from sprinklers.

SOS paid fines of $300,000 for misdemeanor violations of hazardous waste rules, and two company executives served brief jail terms.

SOS suspended operations for two years as it tried to comply with a state order to clean up contaminated water and soil, Alison said. The principal contaminant in ground water was trichloroethylene, a solvent used to degrease metal and a suspected carcinogen.

Universal Propulsion is offering workers a chance to move to Phoenix and some have already agreed to relocate, she said.

The cleanup, which cost about $1.5 million, is virtually complete, Alison said. SOS will continue to monitor conditions at the sites for many years, she said.

The Mint Canyon plant, near Agua Dulce, was closed last year because the company’s flare business had fallen off. The Placerita Canyon plant, which is still in operation, is east of the Antelope Valley Freeway near Sand Canyon, where Tudor mansions and Arabian horse ranches are commonplace.

TransTechnology leased the Placerita Canyon site from Special Devices Inc., another defense contractor. Tom Treinen, president of Special Devices, said it was too soon to say how the site will be used.

Residents living near the plants lambasted SOS after the raids. But over time, members of a citizens committee that helped develop the cleanup plan conceded that the company had responded to the committee’s complaints.

A new controversy over SOS erupted last June when a family living about a mile from the Placerita Canyon plant charged that toxic chemicals had led to four cancer deaths in the family since 1983.

State and Los Angeles County health officials said there was no evidence to back up the allegations, but federal investigators affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta are now reviewing earlier studies on the potential hazards of the contamination in Placerita Canyon.

A series of lawsuits filed against SOS by residents living near the plants were settled out of court this year. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.