Edison Workers Are Overcome by Chemical Odor in Huntington

Two Southern California Edison Co. workers were overcome by a pungent chemical this week while working near a housing construction site in the central section of the city, not far from downtown.

City Deputy Fire Marshal Tim Greaves said Thursday that the strong, unpleasant odor caused by the chemical mercaptan is not a health risk, but that officials don’t know how to remove the contaminated soil.

Greaves said the odor is “as bad as a skunk. It really stinks.”

“I can’t describe it, but it’ll get you running,” he said. “We don’t want it in the city, but we can’t make everyone gag when we take it out. We have to figure out a way to remove it.”

Greaves said the Edison Co. employees were taken to a local hospital, where they were examined and released apparently unharmed.

Mercaptan was discovered in recent months at a site planned for homes. This chemical apparently was used as a warning agent of natural gas during oil refinery operations on the site more than 30 years ago, said Dennis O’Connor, vice president of Pacific Coast Homes, which owns the 100-acre property.

O’Connor said the company has been monitoring air quality at the site to ensure that it doesn’t become a health problem.

“We’re trying to remove the material that somebody else left there,” said O’Connor, whose company is a subsidiary of Chevron Land & Development Co.

Greaves said the city and the property owner are working on a solution to remove the soil without releasing a stench that would bother employees at area businesses.

The city has received some complaints about the smell, and Greaves said the soil must be cleaned before the homes are built on the site.

Edison Co. employees had been working in an underground vault on electrical equipment Wednesday when the mercaptan odor funneled into the chambers, Greaves said.

“They got worried and got out,” he said.

Workers Jerry Loflin and Ron Barger complained of nausea and dizziness and were taken to Pacific Hospital, said Becky Rounds, an Edison Co. spokeswoman. The men had been working on a project to place power lines underground in the area of Ellis Avenue and Gothard Street, Rounds said.

O’Connor said oil and sugar beet refineries once operated on the 100-acre property, where developers are planning to build up to 1,400 single-family homes and condominiums.

The property is bounded by Gothard Street on the east, Crystal Street on the west, Garfield Avenue on the south and Ellis Avenue on the north. O’Connor said the mercaptan problem is isolated to about a five-acre site near Garfield and Crystal.

Grading within this five-acre area has been stopped until the contaminated soil is removed, he said.

O’Connor said it is unknown how much mercaptan is located within the development area.

In late April, some contaminated soil was removed. Greaves said a chemical compound was used to absorb the smell as the soil was dug from the ground. But after several complaints from people at nearby businesses, work was stopped.

The soil removal effort resumed Wednesday, but Greaves said another complaint shut down the work.

A meeting next week is planned with the landowner to come up with a better solution to remove the soil, Greaves said.

“We don’t want it in the city, but we can’t make everyone gag when we take it out,” Greaves said. “We have to figure out a way to remove it.”