EPA Orders Burbank Firm to Test Soil for Contaminants : Pollution: Aircraft maintenance company is targeted in an effort to clean up the area’s tainted ground water.

Continuing its drive to clean up chemically tainted ground water in the San Fernando Valley, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a Burbank aircraft maintenance firm to test soil and ground water to determine if it contributed to the pollution problem.

EPA officials said Wednesday they issued a formal order to Pacific Airmotive Corp. because the firm refused requests by the EPA and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board to complete testing at its property on Hollywood Way in Burbank.

Pacific Airmotive officials have performed some tests and “feel like they don’t need to go further,” said Thomas P. Mintz, EPA associate regional counsel. But Mintz said further tests are needed to determine if the company is among those that leaked solvents into the ground water, causing the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale to idle municipal drinking water wells.

A Pacific Airmotive official did not return a phone call.

Acting under the federal Superfund toxic cleanup program, the EPA and regional water board are investigating scores of companies to determine which will be charged for current and future cleanup work.

A small ground water treatment plant is in operation in North Hollywood and a group of companies, led by Lockheed, has to undertake construction and initial operation of a large treatment system in Burbank.

If Pacific Airmotive refuses to comply with the order, it could be fined up to $25,000 per day, Mintz said. Otherwise, the EPA could pay for the testing itself and recover the costs plus punitive damages, he said.

The testing is intended to determine if the firm spilled or leaked trichloroethylene (TCE) or perchloroethylene (PCE), chemical solvents that are the most prevalent ground water pollutants.