Old Pacific Coast Route in Seacliff to Be Reopened : Derailment: No trace of hydrazine vapors is found near train wreck site. Railroad will do soil core tests this week.

State highway officials planned to reopen old Pacific Coast Highway in Seacliff today after crews cleared the last remaining debris from the Southern Pacific freight train wreck.

Air samples taken Sunday showed no trace of hydrazine vapors in the area of the derailment, authorities said, but the site remained cordoned off and trains traveling on the reopened tracks were held to 10 m.p.h.

“There may or may not be any hazardous materials left there,” said Dennis Dickerson, regional administrator for the Toxic Substances Control Program for the California Department of Health Services. His office has ordered the railroad to do core samples this week to check for lingering soil contamination.

Residents of the oceanfront community of Seacliff, meanwhile, settled back into their homes after being allowed to return Friday night after a six-day evacuation. And tourism began to return to the sunny stretch of coastline between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

“I’ll stay as long as the ocean breezes keep coming in on shore,” said Robert Doyle, 50, of Simi Valley, who set up a campsite Sunday morning in nearby Hobson Park. “If the wind switches, I’ll leave.”

The July 28 derailment, caused by an overheated bearing and broken axle, spilled 440 gallons of liquid hydrazine, a probable carcinogen, and closed a 10-mile stretch of the Ventura Freeway north of Ventura for five days.

Two so-called “hot spots” where hydrazine spilled from eight 55-gallon drums remained fenced Sunday, awaiting further sampling of soil buried by a fresh overcoat of sand. Hydrazine vapors have not been detected rising from the hot spots since Friday, authorities said.

Southern Pacific will be required on Tuesday to present state officials with a plan to remove all vestiges of toxic waste left in the area. The railroad will have to dig up the soil if the core samples reveal the presence of any toxins in the ground, Dickerson said.

Authorities considered reopening the old Pacific Coast Highway at the wreckage site on Sunday, but decided to wait until after 6 p.m. today to give crews a chance to cart away dozens of bins of debris.

“It’s less because of a health concern than a public safety concern, with all the heavy equipment still around,” said Dickerson, who did not anticipate any long-term environmental impact from the toxic wreckage.

In the stretch of coastline north of Ventura, the Ventura Freeway is the main road and Pacific Coast Highway an access road to a few beach communities. Most of the coastal road has been open except for an area near the train wreck where the Ventura Freeway passes overhead.

The majority of the debris has been loaded into garbage bins the size of truck-trailers for shipment to a landfill. Two large piles of soil mixed with nontoxic beads of plastic that spilled in the accident remained on the highway Sunday awaiting delivery of additional garbage bins.

Tom Hale, who is heading the last stages of the cleanup for Ventura-based Ecology Control Industries, said he had to forgo disposing of more than 30 bins of nontoxic debris Sunday because he was unable to find an open dump.

Another five bins of soil contaminated with hydrazine will be shipped to a storage yard in the Oak View area until authorities can arrange for a suitable dump site to handle the toxic waste, Dickerson said.

Follow-up testing Sunday inside a Seacliff home where the presence of hydrazine was suspected revealed no contamination, Dickerson said. Authorities, however, took additional air samples from the house to send to a laboratory for more thorough testing, he said.

While the road alongside the crash site is scheduled to reopen tonight, Dickerson advised that pedestrians and bicyclists keep away from the fenced-off hot spots pending further testing. He said train traffic will also be held to 10 m.p.h. through the area until authorities are sure that the area is safe for speedier passage.