REGION : EPA’s Report on DDT Testing Is Due Today
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will report tonight on the results of recent chemical testing in a South Bay neighborhood where DDT was found last summer.
Agency officials will discuss the results of their tests of soil, indoor air and drinking water in homes along West 204th Street between Normandie and Vermont avenues in an unincorporated area east of Torrance.
The tests turned up DDT and another pesticide in household dust in 25 of the 28 homes tested, EPA officials reported last month. However, no contaminants were found in sufficient levels to merit the permanent relocation of people in the area, they said. Residents were angered by that conclusion, claiming that the EPA was deliberately downplaying the test findings.
The neighborhood sits near a former DDT-manufacturer, Montrose Chemical Corp., which is now a federal Superfund site. To the north is a proposed Superfund site that was once a synthetic rubber factory operated by Shell Oil Co. and Dow Chemical Co., among others.
The EPA will discuss the testing and planned cleanup activities at a public meeting from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at the Van Deene School Auditorium, 826 Javelin St., near Vermont Avenue. More information is available from the EPA at (415) 744-2182 or (800) 231-3075.
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