First Residents Returning to Former Toxic Site : Pollution: Environmental officials reopen Westminster neighborhood closed nearly a year for cleanup of one of nation’s most hazardous areas.

Federal officials today are reopening a neighborhood whose residents have spent nearly a year in hotels and other temporary lodging while toxic black goo was removed from their yards.

The “road closed” signs that have blocked off the entrance to Sowell Avenue at Golden West Street will come down as about 17 families, the toxic refugees, are officially welcomed back.

The families are the first of about 30 returning to homes that were evacuated, cleaned and restored under a $20-million appropriation from an Environmental Protection Agency program to clean up the toxic waste. EPA officials said most of the residents will return here by January, and a few whose homes had to be destroyed and rebuilt will come back in the spring.

“We’re calling this the ‘Goop is Gone Celebration,”’ said EPA project manager Dick Vesperman. “This formally marks the excavation of the hazardous waste.”

The EPA is overseeing the project because it is one of 1,275 high-priority Superfund sites nationwide, and one of three in Orange County, which officials have determined pose the greatest threat to public health. The quiet Westminster neighborhood has been described by EPA officials as one of the worst hazardous waste sites in America.

Officials are still restoring some back yards, many of which contained pools, patios and room additions that had to be removed to dig up the tar-like petroleum sludge that seeped to the surface during hot weather.

Some residents blamed the noxious ooze as the cause of headaches, nausea, coughing and breathing problems. And on Wednesday, some said they were glad to be back to a cleaner, safer place to live.

“It feels good to be home,” said Cathy Vaux, 46, a 20-year resident who began moving back into her home earlier this month. “It’s been a hassle, there’s no way around that. But I can safely say that I believe the problem’s been taken care of.”

Vaux’s statements were echoed by Eber G. Knapp, who has lived in the area with his wife since the tract was built--on top of 45,000 cubic yards of waste--in 1959.

“We were a little upset about it because we really missed [our neighbors],” he said. “People here have always been attentive to each other and caring.”

Knapp, 79, said he knew about the toxic sludge when he moved to the area but, like others, didn’t think it was harmful.

“The kids would find the black stuff and throw it at each other,” he said. “Some even used it for chewing gum.”

According to historical records gathered by the EPA, the saga began in 1936, when the Long Beach-based Ralph Grey Trucking Co. dumped the petroleum waste into four open pits in a field the company owned near Sowell Avenue. EPA officials said the stench was so bad, residents up to 1 1/2 miles away complained to health officials.

Grey was convicted of a misdemeanor offense, ordered to pay a $100 fine, and eliminate the problem within 30 days. But that never happened, and in 1958, a developer who wanted to hide the waste moved it into two long trenches buried 18 feet deep behind some of the houses he was building.

The waste hardened over time, EPA officials said, but when the soil warmed up, so did the strange dark goo--and bubbled up through cracks in pavement, lawns and even into swimming pools.

Grey is long dead, and EPA officials said they cannot find the housing developer who built the tract.

In 1992, the neighborhood was deemed to pose significant risk to public health, and added to the national list of Superfund sites, qualifying for a federally funded cleanup.

On Wednesday, residents praised the EPA’s cleanup effort.

“I’ve been watching this every step of the way and have been to every meeting they’ve had,” Knapp said. “And what I saw was complete professionalism and dedication.”

Normally, officials said, Superfund cleanup sites take nine years to finish from the time they receive the designation. In Westminster, it took just three, including preparation and time to evacuate residents.