Firm Agrees to Clean Another’s Toxic Site : Environment: Air quality agency makes a deal with refinery to remove industrial wastes instead of paying fines for pollution violations.

A Paramount firm has agreed to remove more than 1 million gallons of toxic waste water from an abandoned oil refinery, a key step in cleaning up the site beside the San Diego Freeway in Long Beach.

In exchange, the South Coast Air Quality Management District will waive $70,000 to $100,000 in fines that would have been levied against the firm, Paramount Petroleum Corp., for excessive emissions and odors, said AQMD spokeswoman Paula Levy.

The AQMD has made similar deals with polluters in the past, including requiring a firm to implement a ride-share program to avoid paying a fine, Levy said. But it is the first time the AQMD has arranged for a firm to clean up someone else’s toxic waste problem in lieu of paying fines, she said.

The AQMD has been working with state officials to clean up the site because the waste is a potential source of harmful emissions. The five-acre site, which was abandoned in May, is near Cherry Avenue and Spring Street in Long Beach. It was last operated as a bulk fuel storage and blending terminal by a Las Vegas-based company, Wright Cos., that is now in bankruptcy. The city of Long Beach has placed a guard at the site and posted warning signs.

Paramount Petroleum, a refinery that produces gasoline, jet fuel and other products, was to be fined for emitting excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide on Nov. 3, 1990, and for creating a public nuisance with sulfur dioxide odors last Feb. 27.

But the agency might have found it difficult to collect the fines because the financially troubled refinery has been protected from creditors since filing for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Act last year.

“We figured it was better to ask them to assist in the cleanup than ask them for the money, seeing how they were in bankruptcy,” Levy said.

Paramount Petroleum Vice President Bill Winters said it is a good opportunity for his firm to help the community as well as avoid a fine. “We’re not doing it solely for the economic incentive,” he said.

Paramount Petroleum, plans to begin piping waste from a leaking, 1.5-million-gallon tank to its refinery on Downey Avenue within the next week, Winters said. It also will remove small amounts of waste from about 20 other tanks on the site.

The refinery will separate the petroleum products for recycling and channel the remaining waste water to county facilities for treatment and discharge into the local sewer system.

It will cost Paramount Petroleum between $35,000 and $50,000 to remove and recycle the oil-laden waste, Winters said. The refinery will recover some of that cost once it sells the recycled petroleum.

Although the accord with Paramount Petroleum represents a major step in the state’s effort to clean up the site, plenty of work still remains.

The most hazardous waste, about 175,000 gallons of water laden with oil and cancer-causing PCBs, will remain in a single tank pending further analysis, officials said. It probably will have to be removed by a hazardous waste hauler.

There also are about 300 55-gallon drums on the site that contain petroleum products, and several piles of soil contaminated with petroleum sludge that must be removed.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the state agency leading the cleanup, will then conduct tests at the site to determine the extent of soil and ground-water contamination, said Jim Ross, senior engineer for the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Past tests have indicated there is at least some ground-water contamination to a depth of 85 feet, said Diana M. Bonta, Long Beach director of health and human services.

No one has projected a date for when the cleanup will be completed, but “five years would be pretty optimistic,” Ross said.

It also is uncertain how the cleanup will be funded.

Last May, state officials declared the site a public danger because of the possibility of fire and explosion. The state hired a private contractor to maintain a flare, which burns emissions from the tanks of petroleum waste.

But in August the state reversed itself, saying more extensive study indicated there was little danger of explosion. State officials also said the emissions from the site posed no immediate danger to the surrounding community. The state released the contractor.

Long Beach officials sought a Long Beach Superior Court order to force the state to maintain the flare, which continues to burn waste gases unattended. A court date is pending.

Long Beach officials contended that they did not have the money to hire someone to maintain the flare at a cost of about $37,000 a month. Without the flare, small amounts of cancer-causing benzene would be released into the air as well as 175 pounds per day of hydrocarbons, according to the AQMD.

But those emissions will be much less once Paramount Petroleum removes the majority of waste. The AQMD is studying whether that would render the flare unnecessary.

Long Beach probably would drop its legal action if the AQMD finds that those emissions pose no danger to the surrounding community, Deputy City Atty. Tom Vyse said.