EPA to Sponsor Exams for Residents Near Toxic Site

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will arrange health testing for residents of a South Bay neighborhood who have long complained of health problems that they fear are caused by chemicals from two nearby toxic waste sites.

A top EPA official notified residents Friday that the agency has agreed to test their blood for DDT and other chemicals.

Residents, reporting ailments such as rashes, nausea and dizziness, have repeatedly called on the federal government to evaluate them medically to see if their problems are caused by chemicals. They have complained that although the EPA last month unveiled a $1.7-million plan to test the soil, air and tap water in their neighborhood, the government was not screening people for possible toxic effects.

Those to be tested will include the 33 families from West 204th Street east of Torrance who remain temporarily relocated in hotels after chunks of DDT were discovered buried behind two homes this spring. The neighborhood sits near a former DDT factory, now a federal Superfund site, as well as a former synthetic rubber plant site that is a proposed Superfund site.

Community leader Cynthia Babich said she was heartened to receive a letter Friday from EPA Assistant Administrator Elliott P. Laws notifying her of the impending testing.

“I’m very, very optimistic,” Babich said. “It’s definitely a first step, and we definitely appreciate the fact they’re going to come out here and do some testing.” But she added that some residents need more sophisticated testing, such as tissue sampling, in addition to simple blood tests.

Still to be determined are how many West 204th Street residents will be tested and the chemicals for which they will be screened. At least 100 people could be tested, encompassing the relocated residents and their immediate neighbors. The decision to launch a medical program was made after Laws visited the site July 16 and heard residents complain that many could not afford expensive medical screening to determine if their health problems are linked to chemicals.

In his letter to Babich, Laws wrote: “I have witnessed time and time again the health traumas that communities like yours are experiencing, and I recognize that we in the federal government have an obligation to ensure that these issues are addressed.”

The tests will be conducted by federal, state and county health officials, said William Nelson, senior regional representative for the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. He said that although such health screening is not highly unusual, “it’s not something that occurs routinely.” He added that he does not think his agency has been involved in such screening before at a Superfund site in Los Angeles County. He estimated that such medical care has been provided at eight to 10 Superfund sites in the past two years in the EPA’s four-state western region.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will provide the test analysis, and the program will be conducted in conjunction with Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, according to Laws’ letter.

The EPA is investigating whether residents of West 204th Street will have to be relocated permanently. The street borders two toxic chemical sites now under intense federal scrutiny.

The former site of DDT-manufacturing Montrose Chemical Corp., now a vacant lot, sits to the northwest of the street. Directly to the north is the Del Amo Study Area, once home to the synthetic rubber factory operated by Shell Oil and Dow Chemical, among others. Most of the area is now an industrial park.

Montrose is included on the Superfund list of the nation’s 1,200 most hazardous toxics sites, and Del Amo is a Superfund nominee.

The EPA, contending that the DDT found in the two yards came from the Montrose factory, has attempted to make the company pay for the estimated $2-million disposal of the contaminated soil dug from those yards during a federal cleanup effort.

But Montrose contends that it is not responsible. In a compromise agreement reached with the EPA this week, Montrose has agreed to transport the more than 1,000 tons of tainted soil to Arizona for testing.