Toxic Site Earns Superfund Status : Environment: Black globs oozing up in Westminster neighborhood finally bring cleanup guarantee from EPA.

A neighborhood where black globs of toxic waste have been oozing into homeowners’ back yards for years was added Tuesday to the federal Superfund list of the nation’s most dangerous dump sites.

The area, containing trenches of oil-refinery sludge, is one of the nation’s most unusual and problematic Superfund sites because the waste is amid tract homes, instead of the usual industrial plants or military bases.

“I’m not aware of any other site like this, certainly in our region. It is a high priority one for us because of the proximity of the residents,” said Dick Vesperman, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s project manager for the Westminster site.

EPA officials say they plan to conduct more tests in the neighborhood and choose a cleanup technique that can be used without endangering or overly disrupting the families’ lives. Designation as a Superfund site means that a multibillion-dollar pool of money, collected from taxes on industry, is available for the cleanup.

Vesperman said the environmental agency hopes to decide by mid-1993 what cleanup strategy to use in the 73-home neighborhood, which is located at Sowell Avenue, east of the San Diego Freeway near Westminster Mall.

Some residents will probably have to leave their homes temporarily while the cleanup is conducted.

“If we decide to go in and excavate, it would mean short-term relocation of the people who live in those houses. We would have to tear up their yards to get at the waste,” he said. “We’re looking at a number of alternatives, but we’re not close to a decision on any of them.”

There is also a possibility that some of the houses--35-year-old tract homes--will have to be razed. The waste is known to be underneath the back yards of at least a dozen homes and has stained lawns, swimming pools, house foundations, fences and patios.

“If there’s substantial contamination under the homes, that (razing) would be an option, or we could excavate under the houses, or move them temporarily off their foundations. Any tearing down of the houses would be an absolutely last-case scenario,” Vesperman said.

The long-expected decision by the EPA comes almost seven years after county environmental health officials determined that the black, acidic petroleum wastes seeping into one home’s swimming pool were toxic.

Many county and city officials said they are relieved by the announcement, since it means a guarantee of federal monies and oversight. Some residents have said they are tired of the continual testing in their yards, and hope that the Superfund designation will speed things up.

“I’m delighted they are on the list and I hope this means the cleanup will begin in an expeditious matter,” said Robert Merryman, Orange County’s environmental health director, whose department discovered the waste in January, 1986.

Bonnie Haynie, who has lived on Sowell Avenue for 18 years, said Tuesday she was glad to hear the announcement.

“It sounds like maybe they’ll get something done, but how long will it take, we don’t know,” said Haynie, who finds occasional chunks of tar-like waste in her yard.

Haynie said her family wants to add a room to their house so her recently widowed mother can move in, but can’t because the EPA has to conduct more tests.

If she has to relocate with her husband and two children temporarily during the cleanup, “that’s OK with us,” she said. “The main thing is get it done and let us get on with our lives. There’s people living on these properties and we’re being affected by it.”

The acidic sludge and refinery wastes contain benzene, a highly carcinogenic material, as well as lead and sulfuric acid.

EPA officials said the material, which tends to seep to the surface during hot weather, could cause acid burns if touched and poses a long-term risk of inhaling carcinogenic fumes. Chemicals have seeped into shallow ground water, but have not tainted drinking-water wells.

Some residents complain of health symptoms like asthma, but most say they have lived with the material seeping into their yards for so long that they are not overly concerned. Some say when the material seeps up, they pick it up and throw it in the trash, despite warnings that they should call health authorities.

“In some cases we have reports of children and adults using it as chewing gum,” Vesperman said.

Merryman added: “They thought it was like coal tar, and kids would make balls and throw it at each other. Sometimes they would chew on it.”

During the 1930s, the now-defunct Ralph Gray Trucking Co. hauled the waste from nearby oil refineries and dumped it on old agricultural land owned by the trucking company. In the late 1950s, J.T. Hintz Co., a developer now out of business, bought the land to build homes and moved the waste into three trenches nearby. The yards were then built over the trenches.

Unlike the McColl oil-waste dump, a Superfund site in Fullerton, there is no litigation or opposition from businesses to slow the process in Westminster. As a result, Vesperman predicts that the decision on cleanup will go much more smoothly and rapidly.

EPA officials will explain their next steps to the community at a meeting on Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at South Coast College of Court Reporting, 7122 Maple St. in Westminster.

Thirty-three sites were added Tuesday to the Superfund list, bringing the national total to 1,208 dump sites. The neighborhood is Orange County’s third Superfund site, joining the McColl dump in Fullerton and the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Also included in the new listings is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where 40-year-old cesspools at the federal facility have leaked trichloroethylene and other toxic solvents into ground water. Some drinking-water wells in Pasadena were contaminated, but the water is now being treated so it is safe for residents. The chemicals were used during the Army’s early research into liquid rocket propellants.

Superfund Site A Westminster neighborhood was added to the federal Superfund list, ranking it among the nation’s worst toxic problems. Oil-refinery waste has been seeping into back yards and swimming pools since 1965.