High DDT Levels Force Evacuation of Two Homes : Pollution: The banned pesticide is found near Torrance in yards close to a toxic waste site and a former chemical plant.

Levels of the banned pesticide DDT as much as 45 times higher than what is considered safe have been found behind two homes near Torrance, outraging residents who said Friday that they have been trying for years to get government agencies to pay more attention to toxic substances in their neighborhood.

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency detected DDT levels of 254 parts per million in Cynthia Babich’s yard on West 204th Street and 606 p.p.m. in her next-door neighbor’s yard. The agency returned to sample soil two feet beneath the surface and found DDT levels of more than 4,500 p.p.m.

“We were upset when the levels were 254 and 606 p.p.m. ,” said Babich, who learned on Friday about the higher DDT levels just outside her fence. “Now we’re scared to death.”

She and a neighbor will be relocated for two weeks while the contaminated soil is removed, she said.

The EPA considers DDT levels of 100 p.p.m. safe; concentrations of 260 p.p.m. require emergency action. The highest concentration found near Torrance is more than 17 times higher than emergency levels.

Babich’s home is a few hundred yards from the Del Amo toxic waste site--once a rubber manufacturing plant--and about a quarter of a mile from the old Montrose Chemical Corp.

Residents in Babich’s neighborhood, an unincorporated county area east of Torrance, have long complained of stubborn skin rashes, difficulty in breathing, hair loss and constant headaches, among other maladies.

“People come to meetings with reports of rashes that won’t go away,” Babich said. “Headaches are so common that we sometimes forget to report them.”

After a rainfall, she said, the neighborhood is plagued by strange smells, ranging from the odor of rotten eggs to petroleum to mothballs.

Marla Frame, who lives two doors from one of the contaminated yards, said that she had asked to be relocated during the excavation, but that her request was denied.

EPA spokeswoman Virginia Donohue said there is no health or safety reason to move other residents. The families will be moved so that they will not have to contend with a bulldozer working in their yards, she said.

Babich said residents began pressuring environmental officials to conduct soil sampling more than a year ago, but the first tests were not done until last fall.

“There’s an environmental justice issue here,” she said.

“Low-income (people) and people of color are not treated justly. We’re not taking this anymore.” She said her neighborhood is about 75% Latino, and many people there speak little English.

EPA officials in San Francisco said Friday that beginning next week, about 500 cubic yards of contaminated soil will be removed from the two yards, placed in secure containers and taken to a waste disposal facility.

“We will excavate these two yards until they are clean,” Donohue said. “We will clean probably down to 26 p.p.m.”

Once widely used as a pesticide, DDT was banned for most uses in this country in 1972.

Exposure to the chemical can affect the nervous system and is suspected of causing cancer.

Donohue said EPA officials do not know where the DDT in Babich’s neighborhood comes from. “We are certainly going to do a whole lot more sampling in that neighborhood,” she said.

One possibility is that DDT was in soil that was used as a fill, Donohue said, “but it’s way too early for us to come to any firm conclusions about how it got there. The more pressing issue at the moment is removing it.”

Residents believe the DDT came from the old Montrose Chemical Corp. site, about half a mile away. DDT was manufactured from 1947 to 1982 at the Montrose plant, northwest of Normandie Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard.

Surface soil tests conducted in nearby neighborhoods during the 1980s led environmental officials to conclude that DDT levels were not a threat to public health.

Residents will be able to discuss their concerns with EPA officials Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at a public forum at the Vandeene School, 826 Javelin St. in Torrance.

Times staff writer Deborah Schoch contributed to this story.