25 Families to Move During Waste Cleanup : Superfund: Westminster residents will be relocated next spring while the EPA removes toxic sludge from back yards.

Twenty-five families who live in a neighborhood that was declared a Superfund site must leave their homes for three months next spring while federal cleanup teams excavate large trenches of tar-like toxic waste buried in their back yards.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to hire a contractor for the long-awaited cleanup this fall and begin removing the 50-year-old oil refinery sludge from the housing tract in April or May, said EPA project manager Dick Vesperman.

Just east of Golden West Street near Westminster Mall, the 73-home neighborhood is one of the most unusual and troublesome sites on the nation’s Superfund list because the black, tarry goo frequently oozes into back-yard lawns, gardens, patios and swimming pools. Only rarely has the EPA removed people from their homes during toxic cleanups, since most dumps are located in industrial or commercial areas.

Twenty-five households on Kathy and Allen streets and Sowell Avenue that have a thick layer of sludge buried in their back yards must relocate for an estimated 90 days.

Also, as many as 45 other families--those who live within 100 feet of the waste and others who suffer health problems such as respiratory disease that might be aggravated by the project--will be moved out for two to three weeks, Vesperman said.

EPA officials say the families will be relocated--at the expense of the federal government--because the digging could release dangerous fumes and the heavy construction equipment and gaping holes in the ground would pose safety problems.

The petroleum waste, which is extremely acidic and contains some cancer-causing and noxious chemicals such as benzene and sulfur, was buried in two deep trenches before the tract homes were built in the late 1950s. Each trench is a block long, 12 feet deep and 12 to 14 feet wide.

The residents have mixed emotions about leaving. Some are reluctant to go, but most have been eager for the cleanup work to finally begin. For more than a decade, they have been living with globs of acidic waste occasionally seeping into their yards and engineering teams descending on their neighborhood to repeatedly test the soil, air and water.

“No one wants to have to leave; let’s face it,” said Bonnie Haynie, who lives on Sowell Avenue and must relocate for several months. “But if that’s what it takes to get it done, the sooner the better. Let’s do it. I just wish it were over. We’ve been living with this hanging over our heads for so long now.”

The Westminster site--the first in the EPA’s western region to involve major relocation of residents--has raised some interesting dilemmas for the agency.

Nationally, the EPA has had to relocate neighborhoods only a handful of times during the 13-year life of the Superfund program, including Love Canal, N.Y., and Times Beach, Mo., where the federal government bought people’s homes so they could leave permanently.

At the Westminster site, the EPA staff, based in San Francisco, has had to learn to communicate with residents who speak nine different languages and find ways to ease the residents’ worries about everything from security of their empty homes to the well-being of their dogs and cats.

“This region has never had to do this to this extent before,” Vesperman said. “We’re very much aware of the residents’ concerns with respect to their pets and security and storage of materials while they are gone. The biggest challenge for us is the number of pets we would have to relocate.”

The federal agency will provide a list of relocation options for the families and has promised to provide security patrols and find some temporary homes that accept pets.

Most of the waste is as hard as asphalt, which makes it easier to remove than a liquid, but it often melts in hot weather and oozes to the surface, posing a danger of acid burns and giving off fumes that can trigger respiratory problems, nausea and headaches.

Based on trial digs conducted in the neighborhood last year, the cleanup will release high concentrations of sulfur dioxide, a foul-smelling substance that can cause respiratory problems.

EPA officials say they can control the fumes by spraying a nontoxic mixture on the waste. Air will be monitored during the work, emergency evacuation plans will abe developed for nearby households in case the gases are worse than expected and the workers will be clad in full protective suits.

The waste and contaminated soil will be hauled to an undetermined location for treatment and disposal. If tests show that shallow ground water has also been contaminated, pumps will be installed to remove it. Drinking water, however, has not been polluted.

The houses will not have to be moved or destroyed because they were not built directly over the waste, Vesperman said. But some added-on patios, family rooms and other structures may have to be removed if the material has seeped underneath. The federal agency would reimburse the owners for all damages, Vesperman said.

Haynie said she is “very, very impressed” with how accommodating and responsive the EPA staff has been so far.

“Since we got on the Superfund, they have done everything they said they are going to do and have kept us informed,” Haynie said. “They came by and asked us what kind of impact relocation would have on us. My mother is going to be moving in with us, so we have to make sure wherever we are that it won’t have stairs to climb. I really think they are trying to work with each individual family for their individual needs.”

The EPA’s planning for the Westminster site has gone smoothly and relatively quickly because, unlike other Superfund sites such as Fullerton’s McColl dump, its cleanup has not been bogged down with litigation and opposition from oil companies and residents.

County health officials discovered the waste in Westminster was toxic in the early 1980s. State health officials investigated the area and then the EPA last October added the site to its Superfund list, which means it ranks as one of the nation’s most hazardous dump sites.

The cost of the project has not yet been determined, although it is expected to run in the tens of millions of dollars.

The expenses will be borne by the federal Superfund, a multibillion-dollar pool of taxes and fines on oil companies and other industries because the developer, trucking company and others responsible for creating, hauling and dumping the Westminster waste are either dead, bankrupt or have not yet been identified.

Details of the relocation plan, along with other updated information on the site, will be provided to the community at a meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the South Coast School of Court Reporting at 7112 Maple St. in Westminster.