Ground Water at Escondido Site Slated for Cleanup, State Says

Cleanup of contaminated ground water at the Chatham Brothers Barrel Yard, a toxic-waste dump in rural Escondido, will begin by the end of 1992, state environmental officials said.

The announcement Wednesday night came after state officials found heavy ground-water contamination during the summer in three 100-foot-deep wells. Officials originally believed that the contamination reached to only 25 feet.

Although officials still are unsure how deep contamination from the site at Gamble Lane and Bernardo Avenue extends, they want to begin the cleanup on the ground water at shallow levels, which have been found to be the most toxic.

“Ideally, we would want to drill down and find out how deep the contamination is . . . and find out where it stops,” said Julia Bussey, unit chief at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

But budget considerations make it impossible to both drill deeper wells and begin a cleanup, Bussey said.

Studies will be completed by January to determine cleanup options, Bussey said. A study on the health risks posed by the site also will be made by the end of the year.

A list of as many as 100 companies that generated wastes taken to the site since it began operations in 1941 will be released within the next two weeks, Bussey said. Those companies can be held financially responsible for the cleanup, which has already cost $7.2 million since toxins were first discovered in 1981.

The contamination includes various solvents and volatile organic chemicals. Toxins found at a depth of 100 feet registered as high as 1,160 times the level considered acceptable for ground water, officials said.

Because the ground water moves horizontally between 10 to 20 feet a year, and the nearest source of drinking water, Lake Hodges, is about 2 miles from the site, officials do not see an immediate health threat.