Plan to Return Residents to DDT-Tainted Area Decried : Environment: Critics seek permanent relocation from site near Torrance where chemical was found.

On Tuesday, just one year after fleeing their homes, residents of a DDT-tainted neighborhood angrily denounced a federal plan for them to return home this fall despite their continuing concern that chemicals in the area have made them sick.

Some residents dismissed the $7-million DDT cleanup plan as shortsighted and futile, insisting that the federal government should instead permanently move families away from the area where chunks of DDT were uncovered last spring.

Many who complained were among the 33 families that the federal government relocated temporarily in April, 1994, after discovering DDT contamination in two yards on the north side of 204th Street, between Normandie and New Hampshire avenues in an unincorporated area east of Torrance. The neighborhood is flanked by two toxic chemical sites.

“We need justice now. We need to be out of that area,” said resident Dunia Ponce during a stormy EPA public meeting.

“You’re going to waste $7 million. Fruitlessly . . . because the whole neighborhood’s contaminated,” warned neighbor Robert Evans.

Families have remained in hotel rooms and rented homes while the EPA conducted extensive testing, concluding last fall that the results did not merit permanent relocation.

But agency officials believe that six properties contain soil contaminated with DDT, and they plan to excavate the soil, starting in early June.

Up to three buildings may have to be moved or demolished during the cleanup, and families can remain in temporary housing until it is completed, EPA officials say. To date, the federal government has spent more than $1.5 million to house the relocated residents.

Because testing last year found DDT in dust in 25 of 28 homes studied, the agency plans to steam-clean carpets and wipe other surfaces with damp cloths in all homes in the relocation area. All homes will be tested to make sure that DDT-tainted dust does not exceed 26 parts per million, the level considered safe, EPA officials said.

EPA representatives explained details of the plan at Tuesday’s meeting.

Residents emphatically rejected the notion of the EPA temporarily moving some homes during the excavation and then moving them back. The buildings should be demolished outright, they told the agency.

When some neighbors expressed concern that DDT-tainted dust from the excavation could blow through the area, an EPA representative said that the agency may place a tent-like enclosure over the side while work is under way.

During an initial cleanup job last spring, the federal government removed 1,000 tons of DDT-contaminated dirt from two back yards and transported it to a Texas incinerator for disposal.

The EPA concluded that the banned pesticide came from the former Montrose Chemical Corp., once located three-tenths of a mile west of the yards. An attorney for Montrose, however, says the government lacks sufficient proof.