Water Board Clears Mobil of Pollution Beneath Honda Site

State water officials say recent tests prove that ground water pollution beneath the site where American Honda Motor Co. has built its new national headquarters in Torrance is not related to underground contamination from the Mobil oil refinery to the north.

At stake ultimately is whether Honda and the city should participate in a potentially costly ground water cleanup in and around the 26-acre redevelopment site at Torrance Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue.

The finding by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board is important because Honda and the city have said Mobil is responsible for the pollution, which stems mainly from 1,2-dichloroethane, a chemical used as an industrial solvent and a fuel additive.

If further testing shows that the pollution was caused by businesses that formerly occupied the redevelopment property, the board could order Honda and the city to participate in ground water cleanup action.

The water board has already ordered Mobil to begin such work on an estimated 200-acre plume of polluted ground water stretching south from its refinery.

Based on the new test results, the board’s staff has decided to begin urging Honda and the city to join Mobil voluntarily in a broad ground water cleanup effort that includes the redevelopment site.

But Honda and the city appear reluctant to pitch in. The new test results, they argue, do not prove that the dichloroethane pollution came from a source other than Mobil.

“Our consultant doesn’t see a second plume that’s independent from (Mobil’s) gas plume,” said Honda attorney Joseph Armao of the San Diego law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.

Said Torrance City Atty. Kenneth Nelson: “We’re not yet ready to say that they (Mobil) are innocent, by any means.”

The state is concerned about the ground water pollution because it represents a potential threat to the South Bay’s drinking water supplies.

Though the contamination affects a near-surface aquifer that is not used for drinking water, experts fear that pollutants could eventually descend to deep aquifers from which 25% of the South Bay’s drinking water is drawn.

The recent testing at the Honda site measured dichloroethane levels in ground water there exceeding 1,000 parts per billion. The state considers the chemical a health risk in drinking water if its concentrations exceed .5 parts per billion, said Jim Ross, the water board’s hazardous waste chief.

Ross said the high concentrations discovered on the redevelopment site are a main reason the board determined the pollution does not stem from the Mobil refinery. Although 1,2-dichloroethane is present in Mobil’s underground pollution plume, its concentrations are in the range of 10 to 30 parts per billion, he said.

The recent testing also established that the chemical is far more pervasive on the site than earlier tests had shown, Ross said.

“We’re not convinced that it originated on the American Honda site,” Ross said. “But the data suggest that it originated somewhere other than Mobil.”

To help establish the source, Ross on July 20 ordered Honda to submit by next month a testing plan that will determine the extent and location of the ground water contamination.

Armao, the Honda attorney, says the recent testing has given no reason to doubt that the source of the pollution is Mobil. Even though there is a large disparity in concentrations, it is possible that pollution levels from the refinery have become uneven as the plume has moved.

“Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate in these things,” Armao said.

Armao points out that the tests revealed high pollution levels just north of the redevelopment land. Since ground water pollution in the area moves north to south, he said, it’s unlikely that the Honda site is the source.

“At this point, the clear thing that comes out is that there is a source to the north,” Armao said.

Ross said it is possible that if chemicals were spilled on the Honda site in high concentrations, they could still disperse to the north. He also said the heaviest pollution in the recent round of testing was registered on the redevelopment property, not to the north.

Armao and Nelson indicated that Honda and the city will continue to cooperate in board-ordered testing at the redevelopment site, as they have in the past. But they said they will not agree to take cleanup action until it is definitively proven that pollution in the area originated on the property.

“They don’t have the legal authority to require a property owner to clean up pollution from someone else’s property,” Armao said.