State Rejects Appeal Against Toxic Waste

State regulators have rejected appeals filed by two Pico Rivera groups against the storage of hazardous waste in the city.

The state Department of Toxic Substances Control announced Monday that residents and local school officials had presented insufficient evidence that there is any danger in allowing the Southern California Gas Co. to keep up to 60,000 gallons of toxic waste in the city.

For 13 years the gas company has stored chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic and mercury, at its Rosemead Boulevard plant. City residents were unaware of the waste, however, until they learned in September 1995 that the company’s storage permit needed to be renewed.

The El Rancho Unified School District, which leases property to Mesrobian Armenian School about 1,100 feet from the waste site, joined local residents in appealing the department’s decision to renew the storage permit in September 1996. The school board and community activists argued separately that the toxic materials represented a threat in the event of a disaster, and that a more detailed environmental review was in order.

The Pico Rivera City Council, on the other hand, supported the company’s permit application after reaching a compromise with the utility to limit the amount of waste at the plant to 200 55-gallon barrels--except in case of emergency or by prior notice. The state permit allows 1,100 barrels.

Gas Co. officials insist that the community has nothing to fear and that there has never been a toxic spill at the site. Company representatives have conducted community tours of the carefully guarded storage facility to reassure residents, pointing out that waste from around the region typically remains at the site for no longer than a month before being shipped away.

Unconvinced, several community members have threatened to organize a boycott of the company in anticipation of the utility’s deregulation. The City Council’s compromise with the company is also an issue in a recall election scheduled for this spring against two city councilmen.