Toxins Found Underground in Fullerton

A huge underground pool of a toxic chemical has been discovered at a Hughes Aircraft Co. plant, and the contamination has spread at least half a mile out and 210 feet deep, county and state officials announced Monday.

The chemical, a solvent, poses no immediate health risk because it has not contaminated the city’s drinking water supply, and Hughes is moving as fast as possible to prevent its reaching nearby wells, said Bob Merryman, Orange County director of environmental health.

The extent of the ground water contamination is exceeded in size and potency only by the toxic ground water contamination at the U.S. Marine Corps base in El Toro. Both involve trichloroethylene, or TCE, a potentially cancer-causing solvent used to remove grease from aircraft parts.

The source of the spill is on leased land at 651 N. Gilbert St. that the aerospace company used as a manufacturing plant for about 30 years, until it stopped production there in 1986, officials said. Hughes’ major production complex is on Malvern Avenue nearby.

The solvent is spreading underground in a southwest direction, and it has reached at least as far as the Fullerton Municipal Airport half a mile away. The concentrations of TCE are as high as 150,000 parts per billion--30,000 times higher than the state maximum for water supplies.

“These are significant levels of contamination, and the extent is one of the largest in our region,” said Steven Overman, chief of pollutant investigation for the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board. “There aren’t many with this magnitude and extent of contamination.”

The Hughes spill is of particular concern because the toxic material has been found so deep in an area rich with water supplies and because TCE is a chemical that moves fairly quickly. Ground water used for municipal drinking water in that area is drawn from depths of 435 feet.

“If it’s in ground water 210 feet deep, there’s a lot of it down there. And we know it’s a half mile offsite, so it’s quite a plume,” Merryman said.

Because the boundaries of the spill have not been determined, Hughes cannot estimate yet how close the TCE has come to city wells. The nearest wells are about a mile from the manufacturing site.

Hughes officials said cleanup of the polluted water will begin as soon as nearby landowners and the government agencies involved and grant permission.

The city of Fullerton and the Federal Aviation Administration have given Hughes tentative approval to drill wells at the airport to monitor the contamination. The air field may have to shut down for one night for the drilling, said Paul Brewer, Hughes’ environmental engineer.

Hughes used the site as a production facility for most of the years between 1958 and 1986, but company consultants have not determined when the spill began or what its source was. Soil contamination was first detected in December, 1986, when Hughes removed sumps and other equipment. Since then, consultants have been drilling wells and doing other major work to investigate.

County health officials said they only recently learned the extent of the contamination. They made the announcement Monday because they are obligated under state law to notify the public when water supplies are jeopardized.

Overman said the cleanup and investigation are going as quickly as possible, “given all the constraints Hughes faces.”

Hughes cannot, for example, discharge the ground water into storm drains, which empty into nearby creeks, even after the TCE is removed, because that water will still contain large amounts of selenium. Selenium is a natural contaminant found in soil, but it is hazardous in waterways. Hughes is hoping to obtain temporary permission from the county sanitation agency to discharge the treated waste into sewers.

For the long term, Hughes will have to find a way to reuse the water, such as for irrigation or in production plants, Overman said.

Large amounts of contaminated water--as much as 100 gallons per minute--will be pumped out in a preliminary cleanup. A longer-term project to remove it all will probably take several years at least.

“It’s hard to pin down a time frame for full remediation,” Overman said. “I think it’s going to take at least a year or so just to track down the final extent of the contamination.”

Hughes has not estimated the cost of the project. However, large toxic cleanups often cost millions of dollars and can take decades.

State and county officials praised Hughes’ handling of the problem. Unlike many companies, the aerospace company initiated its own investigation of the contamination and is developing cleanup plans without waiting for orders from the state.

Hughes spokesman Dan Reeder said the company recognizes the seriousness of the threat posed by the spill.

“Hughes has taken the initiative on this,” he said. “We drink out of that water too.”