State OKs Cleanup Plan for Metals-Shredding Waste

Tackling one of the largest hazardous-waste sites in Orange County, state health officials have approved a long-awaited, $15-million plan to clean up a huge pile of chemical-tainted soil at an auto-shredding company.

Most of the waste heap, which is 25 feet high and 100 yards long, will be neutralized in a treatment plant to be built on site and then hauled to a county landfill. The entire effort will take several years to complete, according to the plan completed Friday by the state Department of Health Services.

The site, at 3200 E. Frontera St. in an industrial section of Anaheim, contains 100,000 tons of shredded auto and appliance parts and contaminated dirt. State health officials have considered it a problem since high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were detected in 1986.

Although the PCBs and toxic metals such as lead and zinc are in concentrations considered hazardous, they do not immediately endanger health because no chemicals have been found in the ground water or air. But the pile is so large that it has posed a challenge for its owner and the state to find a practical way to get rid of it, health department officials said.

“We’re talking about 100,000 tons of hazardous waste, and it’s not easy to dispose of,” said Allan Hirsch, spokesman for the health agency’s toxics-control division. “It’s a challenge because of the amount of waste and the amount of money it will take.”

State health officials said the owner, George Adams, has agreed to be responsible for the cleanup. In 1987, his company, Orange County Steel Salvage, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganized last year. It now operates under the name of Adams International Metals.

Developing a cleanup plan “has been a long process,” said Terry Adams, the company’s vice president and the owner’s brother. “There have been a number of steps along the way, and there are several more to follow. But we are happy that it has finally reached this point.”

Adams said he has heard cost estimates ranging from $5 million to $20 million, although the state agency estimates $15.3 million. He said the company has not yet decided where it will find the money, “but it’s our intention to clean up the site. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

Under the state’s plan, about 64,000 tons will be treated using a process called chemical fixation. Soil would be excavated, then processed in a new facility that adds chemicals to change the makeup of the hazardous materials and renders them stable and nontoxic. The detoxified soil then can be disposed of in a county landfill.

Another 36,000 tons of soil that contains oil and grease will be left in place, and cleansed by adding harmless bacteria that gobbles up hydrocarbons--a technique called bioremediation.

The health department’s first step is to solicit bids for the project from waste-cleanup companies, then test and choose the specific types of technology that will be used. That will take one to three years.

Then, the excavation and treatment could take six to nine months, while the bioremediation could take as long as 18 months. State health officials stressed that the public and workers would be protected from exposure during the digging.

Hirsch said the chosen technique is the cheapest acceptable method to handle the waste. Only incineration is less expensive, at $11 million, but it is controversial and would require permits from various agencies, including the city and air-quality district, he said.

“We’re in full support of this remediation (option),” Adams said. “It’s the only one that seems to be feasible. Incineration can be cheaper, but it’s so difficult to get permits that we have not found any companies that are interested in even pursuing it. Incineration is a lost cause.”

If none of the treatment techniques work in trial runs, health department officials say Adams will probably have to haul the soil to a state-certified hazardous waste dump at an estimated cost of $23 million. The closest dump is in Santa Barbara County.

Although Adams International is the primary party responsible for the waste, the state has named the county of Orange and Holly Wade Lewis, a former owner who resides in Hawaii, as partially responsible. Part of the site rests on an old landfill that the county operated between 1946 and 1957.

Adams said the company has no intention so far of holding the county or Lewis responsible for any part of the cleanup.

“Our company is the one that caused the problem, so we are directly liable for the cleanup,” he said.