Firms Agree on S.D. County Toxic Cleanup

Nearly 40 companies and government bodies have agreed to clean up toxic wastes they sent to a now-closed solvent-recycling plant here and to reimburse the state for half of the $8 million it has already spent cleaning up the site, officials announced Monday.

The total bill for the cleanup could reach $30 million, state officials estimate, and the 38 parties will divide that cost and the $4 million owed the state among themselves.

The city of Escondido, the San Diego County Water Authority, defense contractors Hughes Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas and other companies admitted no wrongdoing in the agreement, reached after nearly a year of negotiations with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The owners of the now-defunct Chatham Brothers Barrel Yard in rural southwestern Escondido were not part of the agreement. Attorneys for the other companies and the state toxics agency said they will try to reach separate agreements with the Chatham family, which has owned the site since 1941, to recoup some of the cost.

The cleanup of industrial solvents and dirty automotive oil is expected to take several years and cost at least $30 million, said Dan Weingarten, the state toxics agency’s lead negotiator.

Officials said the Chatham operators simply dumped the unreclaimed materials into the ground, a charge Robert Chatham disputed Monday night. He said the materials sent to his site were “sold and delivered to the reclaimers. There probably wasn’t any (contamination) to start with.”

He declined further comment except to say he has no money to contribute to the cleanup.

The site, which closed for business in 1981, is on the state’s Superfund toxic cleanup list.

State officials aren’t sure to what extent ground water and soil have been contaminated, but studies in 1988 determined that some pollution had spread off-site, said Ric Roda, the toxics agency’s project manager. Roda said most of the wells in the area are used for irrigation, but “there is a potential threat to some drinking water sources.”

Steven McDonald, attorney for the parties that agreed to clean up the 5-acre site, said the companies sent their materials to the plant for proper disposal in good faith--some as long ago as 20 years ago--but decided to start a cleanup rather than fight a state lawsuit.

“They’re stepping forward and, instead of spending a lot of money arguing about it, are going to step in and do their part,” he said.

Because the dumping occurred before the state enacted stricter environmental rules, “these acts (of the 38 parties) were not criminal,” Weingarten said.

The parties in the agreement will decide among themselves how much each will pay toward the $4-million state reimbursement and the total cleanup bill.

Because so many companies sent materials to the plant over the years, some are responsible for as little as 1% of the total contamination, said Rich Varenchik, spokesman for the toxics agency. For example, Escondido City Atty. David Chapman estimated that the city, which several years ago sent dirty automotive oil to the site, is responsible for less than 1.5% of the total bill.

The state, which has been working at the site six years, identified 94 parties that sent materials to Chatham. Fifty-five firms were involved in the original negotiations with the state, but mergers have reduced that number to 38, McDonald said.

McDonald and Weingarten said the state and the 38 companies and government bodies will keep trying to get the other responsible parties to contribute to the cleanup. McDonald said some have already agreed to join.

Under the consent order signed Nov. 16, the parties must by mid-January submit an interim plan to remove the most heavily contaminated ground water. Once that is approved by the state, the parties have 30 days to start the work. They must also continue monitoring and investigating the site to determine the full extent of soil and ground-water contamination and develop a final cleanup plan that the state must approve.

State officials and representatives from the companies and the La Jolla contractor they have hired to oversee the initial work, Hargis & Associates, plan to keep the community informed about the cleanup in a series of meetings starting next year.

McDonald and Julia Bussey of the state agency said it could take three years just to extract the most heavily contaminated ground water, assess the rest of the damage and develop a long-term cleanup plan. The cleanup would take several more years beyond that, they said.

Varenchik said the state began its investigations after the Chatham firm closed, and began testing and cleanup in 1986, after Thomas and Robert Chatham failed to comply with a state order to evaluate and clean up the site themselves.

Jim Chodzko, the Chathams’ attorney, said the family “simply did not have the resources to do what the state wanted it to do.”

State officials removed about 11,000 tons of soil contaminated with solvents, metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the site in 1990, Varenchik said.

According to the agreement, the $4-million reimbursement for the state’s past work is due in four installments over three years, with the first $1.2-million payment due in February.

The companies and government agencies that signed the agreement to clean up the Chatham Bros. site:

From Escondido: City of Escondido. San Diego County Water Authority. Ametek Inc.

From San Marcos: GEC Marconi. Power Plus Corp. Signet Armorlite Inc.

From San Diego: A to Z Enterprises Inc. Cipher Data. CSI Technologies Inc. Cubic Corp., Cubic Automatic Revenue Collection Group, Cubic Communications Inc. and Cubic Western Data. Deposition Technologies Inc. Hallmark Circuits Inc. Kyocera International Inc. Maxwell Laboratories. Mepcopal Co. Solar Turbines Inc.

San Diego County: Ara-Chem Inc., Chula Vista. Deutsch Engineering Connecting Devices, Oceanside. Ketema, Aerospace & Electronics Division, El Cajon. Monitor Products, Oceanside. Valley Center Water District.

Orange County, Los Angeles area: Archive Corp., Costa Mesa. Astro Aluminum Treating Co., Long Beach. Blair’s Metal Polishing & Plating Co., Cerritos. Cherry Division of Textron, Santa Ana. Frawley Corp., Studio City. Hartley Penn Co., Costa Mesa. Huck Manufacturing Co., Carson. Interstate Electronics Corp., Anaheim. Loral Defense System-Arizona, Newport Beach. McDonnell Douglas Corp., Cypress. Robertshaw Controls Co., Long Beach. Gadget Manufacturing Co., Lynwood.

Los Angeles: Hughes Aircraft Co. McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. Gillette Co. Textron Inc. Zero Corp.

Rest of California: Aerojet General Corp., Folsom. Copal Electronics Inc., Santa Clara.

Outside California: Caterpillar, Rogers, Conn. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Materials Sciences Corp., Chicago. Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., St. Paul, Minn. Navistar International Transportation Corp., Chicago. North American Phillips Corp., Wilmington, Del. Rogers Corp., Rogers, Conn. Sears National Headquarters, Chicago. Soladyne Inc., Massachusetts. Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Co., Danbury, Conn. Unitrode Corp., Bellerica, Mass.