Rolling Up Its Sleeves to Ease Messy Job : * EPA Takes Steps to Assist Westminster Residents Affected by Superfund Site Cleanup

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making the best of a bad situation for 25 families that live in a Westminster neighborhood that was declared a Superfund site.

This is that remarkable 73-home neighborhood where black goo has oozed into back-yard lawns, gardens and patios, as if it were a scene from some summer sci-fi movie where life in the suburbs turns into a nightmare. The situation has been horrible, but now years of waiting have come down to planning for the dislocation that families will endure during the cleanup. In a commendable attempt to head off some of the disruption in people’s lives, the EPA is cutting through red tape and making life a little easier for those affected.

This fall, the EPA will hire a contractor and begin moving sludge from an old oil refinery site that never should have been picked for a housing development in the first place.

But Superfund designation at least offers a new beginning, even if it will mean the relocation of families and excavation of large trenches during the period of work, estimated at 90 days. It is possible also that as many as 45 other families will be moved out for two to three weeks.

The important thing now is the commitment the EPA is making and the lengths to which it is prepared to go to help families. The government will pay for their relocation, which will be the first in the EPA’s western region. In the past it has only relocated people a few times, including away from the notorious Love Canal, N.Y., site.

This project has some added complications. The relocation involves residents who speak nine different languages, and the EPA has taken steps to communicate with them. And the planners are paying due consideration to security at the vacated homes, and even promising to find some temporary homes for people’s pets.

Then there is the complicated cleanup itself, which will require controlling fumes from sulfur dioxide, which tests have shown will be released. Air quality will be monitored, and there are emergency evacuation plans for nearby households. Some patios and added-on structures actually may have to be removed, although no houses will have to be moved or destroyed.

Nervous residents seem grateful enough for the information and these efforts. In addition to picking up the tab, the cleanup is also going a long way toward giving a long-suffering neighborhood some hope and peace of mind.