CITY SMART / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California : The Secret Next Door : For a Dozen Years, a Pico Rivera Neighborhood Has Been Used to Store Toxic Waste. It’s Legal, but the Residents Don’t Like It.

For nearly 40 years, the Gas Co.’s plant on Rosemead Boulevard in Pico Rivera has been an innocuous part of the landscape.

Surrounded by an elementary school, neat rows of homes and a smattering of industrial facilities, the 30 acres occupied by the Gas Co. are well-kept for an area zoned industrial and residential.

Appearances can be deceiving. Since 1983, a small section of the plant has served as a storage facility for hazardous wastes, including polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a suspected cancer-causing substance.

Until a few weeks ago, no one in the community knew that PCBs were routinely transported through their neighborhood.

The information only came to light when the Environmental Protection Agency notified residents that the Gas Co., after years of legal operation under an interim permit, was applying for a permanent permit to store such wastes.

Despite claims of safe procedures, the unsettling disclosure has angered neighbors, community leaders and city officials, and left many at a loss for what to do.

“We simply don’t want PCBs there, no matter how well maintained the facility is,” said David R. Ghoogasian, principal of the adjacent Armenian Mesrobian Elementary School.

His sentiments were echoed by Susana Tapia, who bought a home in the neighborhood in 1985.

“This facility is surrounded by homes and a school. It’s incredible,” said Tapia. “I’m scared for my children, I’m scared PCBs will affect us, I’m scared we’ll have an earthquake.”

Tapia found out about the storage on Sept. 1 when she received a notification from the EPA informing her about a public hearing to seek input on the facility’s application for a permanent operating permit.

Alarmed, Tapia contacted the city government and several community organizations, including Mothers of East Los Angeles and Save Our Services, a lobbying group that works with communities on utilities and civil rights issues.

Together, they got about 60 people to attend the Sept. 16 hearing, despite the fact that it was scheduled on a Saturday and a holiday--Mexican Independence Day.

Thanks largely to Tapia’s efforts, a second hearing has been scheduled to address community concerns. In about 90 days, a decision will be made on whether to grant a permit that would allow the Gas Co. to store PCBs for another 10 years.

A growing number of residents oppose the granting of the license. For Tapia, the solution is simple yet radical: Move the facility.

“I would have absolutely not bought the house if I knew this facility was there,” she said.

Despite the residents’ concerns, the Gas Co. has played by the rules.

Under an interim permit granted in 1983, the storage facility--a 100-by-65-foot fenced area--complies with EPA standards and can store up to 300 tons of waste, including automotive oils, solvents and paint waste for up to a year. It can also hold up to a dozen containers of material suspected of being contaminated with PCBs. The containers can be stored for no longer than a month at the site. When the facility was granted its interim permit, the EPA “did not require us to notify the public, so we didn’t,” said Juanita Lewis, district manager for the Gas Co.

“The area was designated an industrial use area,” she said. Unfortunately, people bought homes there and the city allowed them to do so.

“But if we weren’t safe, we couldn’t even operate,” she said.

Ron Baker, a spokesman for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said the facility does not pose a significant threat to the environment or to public health, provided it follows its operational plan and complies with state laws and regulations on management of hazardous waste.

As for comments from the community, they will be looked at, but “the fact that the facility is in a residential area would not lead us to relocate,” he said. “There are several other such facilities in residential areas.”

Lewis said the Gas Co. would not consider moving its storage facility. “All the companies in this zone have industrial waste,” she said. But, Lewis said, they might consider storing PCBs elsewhere.

That would be a good compromise, said Ruben McDavid, an environmental adviser for Mothers of East Los Angeles, who is helping the community broker a solution.

“I think the facility, because of the PCBs, does pose a risk, especially for the school,” McDavid said. “My solution [would be] yes, you can have the permit, but under certain conditions, and they are not difficult to achieve.”

These would include storing PCBs in a separate location and asking the facility for a waste reduction plan.

The big question, he said, is “who has more importance for the city: the facility that provides jobs and some benefits or the residents?”