Peace in McColl Controversy

This month marked a milestone in the years-long attempt to spare residents of an otherwise fine Fullerton neighborhood the effects of toxic waste. At long last, the contaminated soil was sealed off and topped with dirt and rock.

The McColl toxic waste site was one of the first areas deemed so polluted as to be eligible for designation as a Superfund site after Congress enacted the toxic waste cleanup law in 1980. The law was a good idea, an attempt to help people who bought property in areas that later entered the pollution lexicon, as happened with Love Canal, N.Y., for instance. But implementation has been seriously flawed. McColl is a good example of how not to do things.

First there was a battle over what companies had legal responsibility for the cleanup and to what degree. Eli McColl was long gone. He once operated the dump for waste products from a World War II oil refinery. Successor oil companies quarreled over what share of blame they bore.

There also were disagreements on how best to do the cleanup. One proposal was to dig up the toxic materials and truck them to an out-of-county dump. A judge rejected that notion, saying the federal Environmental Protection Agency had not met requirements for the removal. Later, the EPA came up with elaborate proposals for burning the toxics. Eventually all sides agreed on capping the wastes, the solution finally adopted.

The process lasted too long and contributed to residents’ mistrust of government. Any number of homeowners despaired of a solution and moved. Some stuck it out because they couldn’t afford the economic loss of selling a house that was found to be sitting on a toxic waste site. They had to worry about cancer-causing chemicals and about noxious fumes wafting into their houses. Promises of quick cleanup were violated repeatedly.

Workers began the capping process about 14 months ago. Clay walls were sunk into the ground to surround the wastes. A polyethylene cover is intended to keep water out and cancer-causing chemicals in. Probes will monitor any gas seepage. Part of the property will be returned to an adjacent golf course, one of the elements that gives the neighborhood its charm.

Residents of the area around Rosecrans and Sunny Ridge have paid their dues. They deserve what should be theirs in the near future--days without the sounds of construction and nights without the odor of toxic gases.