Pitchess Jail Officials Embrace Cheaper Plan to Clean Up PCP

Pitchess jail officials said Friday they have embraced a simple yet effective alternative that will cut the multimillion-dollar costs of removing illegally buried PCP: Leave the drugs underground and instead reroute rainfall runoff.

Roger Anderson, the jail’s civilian administrator who directed an investigation of the problem, said he will propose the plan to state regulators and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in about six months, after more testing.

“It’s not like a spill where you identify what’s wrong and quickly clean it up,” Anderson said. “This is the cheaper way to get the most bang for the buck and still get the job done.”

With estimates of the cost of removing the PCP running as high as $50 million, Anderson said the alternate plan would not only be safer than removal but could cost just $2 million to start up and $1.4 million to monitor over 10 years.

It would steer rainwater runoff away from the waste by grading the canyon where the chemicals are buried, install an underground barrier to block the spread of toxic materials already in the ground water and cap the site with clay, a common practice at landfills.

Natural vegetation would then be replanted over the cap and underground waste would be monitored regularly.

“We feel it will pass the review” of regulators and the board, Anderson said.

Earlier this week, the board released results of an investigation of how the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Fire Departments have handled the problem. The two departments spent six years and nearly $1 million. The report said it may be safer to leave the drugs where they are, which is still far from areas that supply drinking water.

Anderson said Friday he agrees with that conclusion.

Tests conducted since 1991, when drugs were discovered in water in 12-foot pits at the bottom of a steep canyon near the jail’s landfill, show little seepage into the ground water.

Lori Howard, an aide to County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said the supervisor is still worried that the PCP could contaminate drinking water supplies.

“The supervisor wants to feel certain. He wants to see if the water is not threatened,” Howard said.

The PCP, seized in drug lab raids, was illegally buried in more than 100 pits in the late 1970s by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Sheriff’s Department. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decided not to file charges, in part because prosecutors determined that those who buried the chemicals lacked criminal intent.

County officials are meeting with DEA officials to help determine the scope of the dumping.

The drug’s hazardous mix includes such substances as sodium cyanide, benzene, toluene and explosive ether.

The report, released Monday by the county’s chief administrative officer, found that the cleanup effort has been carried out according to law but expressed dissatisfaction with its pace and price tag.

It suggested that the County Fire Department be placed directly in charge of cleanups of toxic substances on county property in the future. The Sheriff’s Department conducted the study of the problem at the jail, which the sheriff is responsible for, with the Fire Department monitoring the effort.

While the report did not directly criticize the two departments, it said the arrangement used at Pitchess could lead to a lack of clear priorities and delay work.