EPA Cites 16 Firms for Polluting San Gabriel Valley Aquifers : Cleanup: Companies are expected to pay $47 million to build wells and a treatment plant to cleanse tainted ground water beneath Azusa, Irwindale and Baldwin Park.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has named 16 companies it considers responsible for cleaning up the most heavily polluted ground water in the San Gabriel Valley--a job that is projected to cost more than $100 million.

Though there is still room for negotiation, the 16 firms are expected to pay about $47 million to install wells and build a treatment plant to extract and cleanse tainted water beneath the cities of Azusa, Irwindale and Baldwin Park in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, officials said.

All but two of the companies were named for contamination that resulted from their manufacturing operations in Azusa. The other two firms are in Irwindale and Baldwin Park. The amount each company will pay will be determined by the proportion of pollution they contributed and their ability to pay.

The EPA settled on the 16 companies after investigating 700 potential polluters over the past 10 years, said Wayne Praskins, an EPA official who is overseeing the cleanup.

“We think these are all of the significant contributors to the contamination,” Praskins said.

The EPA action comes more than 15 years after industrial solvents and other pollutants, some of which cause cancer, were discovered in San Gabriel Valley aquifers. The valley’s entire ground water basin was designated a federal Superfund site for priority cleanup in 1984. The water under Azusa, Baldwin Park and Irwindale is the most polluted of the badly tainted basin. Under Superfund regulations, polluters are required to pay to remedy the problem.

Of the 16 firms, the largest contributors to the ground water contamination are Aerojet General Corp., Huffy Corp., Oil & Solvent Process Co. and Wynn Oil Co., the EPA found.

The other firms named by the EPA are: Azusa Land Reclamation Co., Baxter Healthcare Corp. of Irwindale, Fairchild Industries, Hartwell Corp., J.H. Mitchell & Sons Distributors of Baldwin Park, Reichhold Chemicals., Rubber/Urethanes Inc., Screwmatic Inc., Valspar Corp., Mobil Oil Corp., Martin Marietta Corp. and White & White Properties.

While the 16 firms are expected to pay for most of the start-up costs of the cleanup, they will be aided by grants from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In addition, the Metropolitan Water District, a large importer of water, and its local affiliates are expected to contribute to the effort.

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The water agencies are considering an agreement by which they would maintain the treatment operation, at an estimated cost of $4 million a year, in exchange for storage rights in the valley’s aquifers and other benefits that come from distributing the treated water to local customers, officials said.

Through the cost-sharing agreement, local officials hope to avoid the legal battles that have plagued other Superfund sites, including the Operating Industries landfill in Monterey Park.

A spokesman for Aerojet General, one of the firms facing the greatest liability, said he is optimistic that an acceptable agreement to pay for the cleanup is near. Aerojet produced and tested solid- and liquid-fuel rockets, among other things, at its Azusa facility, where considerable contamination was found.

“We sure hope the progress we’ve made so far will continue and result in a solution to the problem,” said Peter R. Taft, a lawyer representing Aerojet.

The EPA has not set an opening date for the treatment plant. Plans to clean up other areas of the San Gabriel Valley’s underground water are pending.