EPA Investigates Black Ooze at Former Rubber Company Site

Authorities said Thursday that they are investigating a black, tar-like substance that oozed out of a former dumping ground near Torrance that was once used by a synthetic rubber company.

Officials from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency collected samples and said test results are expected next week.

The substance was discovered in the Del Amo Pits, the dumping site for the rubber plant on Del Amo Boulevard between Vermont and Normandie avenues in Los Angeles. The pits lie within a 280-acre area that the EPA has proposed for the Superfund list of 1,200 of the nation’s most toxic hazardous waste sites.

“To our knowledge, this has never occurred in that area before,” EPA spokeswoman Paula Bruin said of the seepage.

After the substance was discovered, workers spent Wednesday and Thursday covering a 30-by-50-foot area with 1 1/2 feet of topsoil.

The pits had previously been covered with some soil, and it is possible that the sludge came to the surface because of erosion and the hot weather, according to Tomi Van de Brooke, a spokeswoman for Del Amo Response Group. She also said trucks had driven across the site during investigation work, possibly wearing down the soil. The Del Amo Response Group includes Shell Oil Co. and Dow Chemical Co., both of which once operated the synthetic rubber plant.

Just south of the pits, the EPA also is investigating the source of chunks of DDT--some as large as a foot across--that were found mixed with fill soil behind two homes on West 204th Street. Residents on that street expressed alarm at the latest discovery.

“My first reaction was: ‘As if we don’t have enough already to deal with,’ ” said Marla Frame, who lives on the street. “This is what we have been dealing with all along: ‘What if?’ One of the things that we most feared has come true.”

As the EPA investigates the extent of the DDT, 33 families have been temporarily relocated.