Toxic-Waste Management Center Opens in Glendale

The bright, clean building off San Fernando Road in Glendale is a dead ringer for a visitors center. Framed Ansel Adams prints line the walls, sleek brochures and displays are plentiful, and staff members eagerly offer tours.

The appearance is slightly deceptive. The facility, dedicated Tuesday with much fanfare, is Glendale’s new hazardous-waste management center--where residents can drop off their household toxic wastes and study conservation displays while emergency-response crews train for hazardous-waste spills and accidents.

The Environmental Management Center, a one-story building at 780 Flower St. that will be operated by the city’s Fire Department, is believed to be the first of its kind in Los Angeles County and possibly the nation, officials said.

“We’re without question in an era of responsible waste management,” Richard Hinz, Glendale’s assistant fire chief, told about 100 people who attended Tuesday’s dedication ceremony. “The EMC is a pioneer in that area.”

Beginning April 20, Glendale residents can drop off paint cans, car batteries, used motor oil, drain openers, pesticides and other hazardous waste at the center on the second Saturday of each month.

On weekdays and on the monthly drop-off day, they can browse through the Environmental Consumer Center to look at displays of water-saving shower heads and other conservation equipment, or study the drought-resistant, fire-retardant plants that are labeled in an outside garden.

And in the future, residents will be able to cash in their plastics, glass and paper at a satellite recycling facility nearby, said Chris Gray, the city’s fire marshal.

The center next year will offer a hazardous-waste disposal program for small businesses such as automotive repair and printing shops, Gray said.

The center is Glendale’s response to a state mandate that requires cities and counties to develop plans to manage household hazardous waste.

Since 1987, the Fire Department once a year has sponsored a household hazardous waste drop-off program for residents. But officials realized that they needed to offer the collection days more often and coordinate the city’s broader hazardous-waste management efforts, Gray said.

Gray and other city officials said they do not know of any other facility in the country that offers as many services, including a monthly collection day for household hazardous wastes.

In the county, Santa Monica has a permanent storage and drop-off building for household wastes, but it offers no other services there, said Florence Pearson, senior hazardous-materials specialist for the state Department of Health Services regional office in Burbank.

Glendale’s 14,000-square-foot facility, at a city-owned site formerly rented by a private research company, is tucked away in the San Fernando Road industrial corridor.

A $500,000 renovation by the city added a carpeted reception area, museum-like displays and a classroom for public workshops on fire prevention, water conservation and other environmental topics.

The neatness is slightly deceiving, visitors discovered Tuesday during a tour. A cluster of rooms beyond the education center includes a garage for emergency-response trucks, a laboratory for training workers and a storage area for drums of acidic, flammable and other hazardous wastes.

Workers have access to computer files on locations of toxic chemicals in the city. And emergency-response crews can rush hazardous materials from a spill or accident to the laboratory for testing, instead of waiting up to two days for a private company to analyze the materials, Gray said.

“It’s a state-of-the-art, comprehensive center,” he said.

Under the drop-off plan, residents will drive up to a warehouse door at the center and remain in their cars while workers unload the empty paint cans, old car batteries or other hazardous materials. Proof of residency in Glendale will be required.

The materials will be put into drums and stored in separate stalls. The storage room is equipped with sprinkler systems, explosion-proof lights, a ventilation system to prevent buildup of vapors and special eye-rinse and body showers, Gray said.

Its concrete floor has a 27-layer “membrane” designed to prevent soil contamination, and the stalls are lined with berms (mounds of dirt) and a drainage system to contain spills, he said. In addition, an emergency-response plan for spills and accidents has been drawn up, he said.

The Fire Department will recycle materials such as car batteries and motor oil through private companies and has hired a contractor to treat and transport non-recyclable materials to incineration sites or to landfills, said Vasken Demirjian, the department’s hazardous-materials supervisor.

Under state law, waste can be stored at the site for just five days, but the Fire Department is seeking a special permit to store the materials for up to a year, Demirjian said.

City officials said they are not certain how much it will cost to operate the center, because the amount of waste collected may vary each month. A 65-cent fee that was added to monthly utility bills in 1989 will be used to pay for the center’s services, Demirjian said.

Last year’s one-day collection brought in 30 tons of waste and cost the city about $75,000. At least that much is expected during each of the first two collection days at the center, followed by lower amounts in later months, he said.