Contaminants Detected in Companies’ Disposal Wells : Environment: EPA orders car dealer and tire store to find new ways of disposing of their tainted rinse water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a Newhall tire store and a Lancaster automotive dealership to stop injecting rinse water tainted with cancer-causing chemicals into underground disposal wells.

The chemicals found at Sierra Toyota Inc. of Lancaster and Daily Tire and Automotive Inc. of Newhall are not an immediate health threat, but were found in concentrations above federal safety standards, EPA spokeswoman Lois Grunwald said Thursday.

The two businesses were among five automotive service companies in Los Angeles County ordered to correct what federal officials said were violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The presence of lead, trichloroethane and vinyl chloride in water samples taken at the Newhall and Lancaster companies indicates a potential for ground-water contamination, Grunwald said.

At Sierra, for example, EPA samplings found 59 micrograms per liter of trichloroethane, well above the safety standard of 5 m.p.l., she said.

Both companies were ordered to stop injecting water into the wells, to dispose of fluids remaining in the wells and to temporarily seal all pipes and floor drains leading to the wells.

Known as injection wells, the wells accept water used to rinse work areas and then percolates into the ground. At Daily Tire and Sierra Toyota, EPA investigators found that oil, degreasing solvents and other chemicals were allowed to mix with normal rinse water injected into the wells, rather than being cleaned up separately, Grunwald said. There was no evidence that the mixing was intentional or malicious, she said.

Under the EPA order mailed last Friday, the businesses must find alternative ways to dispose of the chemicals, such as recycling, Grunwald said.

“I’m going to do whatever is right to comply with the order,” said Leon Graham, owner of Daily Tire. “I’m not going to fight it.”

The EPA also ordered Foothill Chevrolet of La Canada, as well as Trancas Canyon Chevron and Ball and Sons Auto Inc., both of Malibu, to take the same remedial actions.