Favored Site for Airport Is Full of Toxic Waste

The San Bernardino County land where Orange County leaders want to place an international airport is so polluted by discarded jet fuel and chemical solvents that it ranks among the nation’s worst hazardous-waste sites.

Cleaning up the area around George Air Force Base will cost the federal government millions of dollars and could take as long as three decades.

“It has been identified as one of the most potentially hazardous toxic waste sites in the country,” Terry Wilson, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco, said Tuesday. “The fact that it’s on the (EPA’s Superfund) list indicates that this particular site has very significant environmental problems.”

Officials say that the pollution would not likely block development of an airport. However, the issue, coupled with a boiling political squabble that divides the surrounding high-desert communities, stands as an obstacle that Orange County airport backers must overcome as they proceed with plans to convert what is now George Air Force Base into a Southland “super port” served by a high-speed train.

According to EPA and Air Force officials, a storm drain running parallel to the main runway at George long served as a dumping area for solvents, paints and industrial chemicals, and some of them leached into soil along the 18,000-foot drain.

In addition, an underground lake on the edge of the base has been contaminated by solvents once used to de-grease aircraft. Trichloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen, has seeped into the water, poisoning the lake. That and other hazardous chemicals have turned up in on-base monitoring wells within three miles of where base residents draw their drinking water, according to the EPA.

Despite those problems, local and federal officials say they do not believe plans for building a commercial airport at the base--scheduled to close in December, 1992--will be affected by the presence of toxic chemicals.

The Defense Department has already launched a $5-million cleanup program, and though it is expected to take 15 to 30 years in the case of the underground lake, local officials say the proposed airport could be built around the contaminated area.

“As I understand it, our environmental situation as it is would not prevent the base’s reuse as a commercial airport,” said Capt. James Tynan, a spokesman for the base.

Adelanto Mayor Ed Dondelinger, whose city abuts the base, agreed, saying that the environmental problems are significant but that the Defense Department is handling the cleanup.

While the environmental issues, though serious, appear to be under control, a pesky political standoff has arisen: Some local officials in the high desert welcome the international airport with open arms, but others fear potential environmental and traffic problems that could come with such a large facility and favor a much smaller one.

Infighting between two groups has grown to the point that the Air Force, which has urged area governments to reach a consensus, has offered to supply a federal mediator.

“It’s kind of like a family squabble,” said Bruce Kitchen, a Hesperia City Council member. “We’re all going to sit down at the table. It’s just a matter of who gets the most potatoes.”

Dondelinger and other Adelanto officials have argued that their city has been the most affected by the Air Force base and that they have the most at stake in its conversion. As a result, Adelanto has sought to pursue development of an international airport essentially on its own, seeking input from its neighbors but hoping to retain the final say in whatever plan is adopted.

That has irritated the other high-desert communities, however, where officials say traffic and other fallout from any commercial airport in the region would affect them as well. Joined together as the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority, representatives of three cities and the county are arguing for a more modest proposal than the one backed by Adelanto.

“Our initial analysis is that the base would be more appropriately used as a regional airport about the size of Ontario,” said Wayne Lamoreaux, town manager of Apple Valley. “We’re not ready to embrace the idea of a ‘superport.’ ”

The Victor Valley group has agreed to have a mediator intercede, but so far Adelanto has not. “I’m a little reluctant to agree to a mediator because I have everything to give and they have nothing,” Dondelinger said.

All the while, Orange County officials are waiting in the wings in hopes that construction of the airport and rail will relieve congestion at crowded John Wayne Airport. County supervisors voted last month to endorse George Air Force Base as their preferred airport site.

Board Chairman Don R. Roth, one of the airport and super-speed train’s most fervent supporters, said Tuesday that he will meet with the Victor Valley group on July 25 but plans to steer clear of the high-desert battle.

Times staff writer Marla Cone contributed to this report.