Runoff Triggers Toxic Leak at Stringfellow

Spring runoff brewed up another toxic waste leak at the Stringfellow acid pits, prompting officials to close the dump and cancel a Friday tour by jurors hearing a damage suit against its users.

Work crews wearing respirators plugged an initial leak Wednesday. It was the third since rainfall saturated the 20-acre dump and surrounding hills two months ago.

But a small amount of contaminated liquid was still seeping up Friday, said Beth Jines, project leader for the state Environmental Protection Agency. The liquid was being trapped in an on-site pond, she said.

Winter storms, which raised the water table by about 10 feet under the dump, pushed buried chemicals through joints in an underground clay pipe, officials said.

Work is still needed to be done on the pipe, Jines said, and the dump will remain off limits until it is fixed. “We’ll get a better idea next week,” she said.

The pollutants spilled into drainage channels that carry water from Stringfellow to the Glen Avon community, a mile away, but they were diluted to harmless levels before they got there, Jines said.

Meanwhile, authorities turned down requests to visit the site 10 miles west of Riverside, where field trips and tours have been common in recent years.

The jurors were hearing a suit by 3,800 plaintiffs who claimed injury to their health or property from waste dumping at Stringfellow. In February, 10 companies agreed to pay $43.6 million in the case, which has been going on for nine years.

Damage agreements so far have come to $96 million. The state remains the main defendant.

The site opened in 1956 after state geologists deemed it suitable for dumping solvents, acids, pesticides and other poisons. However, the toxic substances leached into the soil or blew in the wind toward neighboring communities.

Much of the 35 million gallons of waste dumped before 1972 is buried under four feet of dirt.