FULLERTON : McColl Incineration Option Is Criticized

A group of oil companies that might be held responsible for cleaning up refinery wastes at the McColl dump site criticized federal environmental officials Friday for a recent decision to continue considering on-site incineration as a possible cleanup solution.

The five oil companies and an association of homeowners living near the former McColl dump had been lobbying the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reverse its decision on on-site incineration. The EPA has spent the past several years looking for the best solution to prevent the estimated 150,000 tons of World War II-era refinery sludge from causing health problems for current and future residents of north Fullerton.

In March, just as the EPA was set to announce its preferred cleanup plan, agency officials said studies on the best method of disposing of the sludge would have to begin again. A test burn of the wastes revealed new information that, by law, should go before public and environmental review before proceeding, the agency said.

After that announcement, the five oil companies and the Fullerton Hills Community Assn. pushed the EPA to rule out incineration and instead focus on how to safely leave the wastes where they are. The EPA answered their requests this week by announcing that it would still look at incineration as a possible solution, said Bill Duchie, a Shell Oil Co. representative and spokesman for the five oil companies.

Last year, the EPA said repeatedly that incineration would likely be the best solution to permanently cleaning up McColl.

“Our concern is they may have so much emotionally invested in incineration that they don’t want to screen it out,” Duchie said.

Federal EPA officials could not be reached Friday for comment.

Studies that the oil companies have conducted show that incineration could expose the residents to toxic fumes and cost upward of $400 million, Duchie said. A cleanup method preferred by the oil companies, Duchie said, would remove some of the more hazardous wastes and seal the rest under ground with layers of plastic and dirt to prevent escape of odors and harmful chemicals. That plan would cost about $90 million, he said.

Capping the site will be one of the solutions the EPA will consider before rendering its cleanup decision in late 1993, EPA officials have said.

The oil companies are pressing for a cheaper solution to the McColl cleanup because federal law might force them to pay for the job, even though the companies weren’t directly responsible for dumping the wastes at the dump.

Haulers legally dumped wastes from the refining of high-octane aviation fuel during times when environmental laws were lax. Current law, though, makes cleanup of such waste sites the responsibility of the landowner and anyone who dumped at the site.