Cleaning a Superfund Site

In 1980, cancer-causing compounds were found in the water and soil beneath Lockheed-Martin’s old industrial sites in Burbank. Eight years later, after extensive monitoring and testing, federal, state and local agencies determined that the water was undrinkable and the soil toxic.

Although many aviation firms, as well as smaller businesses such as dry cleaners, were linked to the toxic compounds, Lockheed was given the biggest cleanup role.

Thus began one of the nation’s largest federal Superfund cleanups.

Beneath Lockheed’s roughly 320-acre site, were found two main toxic compounds-- perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE)-- that were originally used as solvents in the 1950s and ‘60s, before contamination was considered an important environmental problem.

In January 1996, a water treatment plant was activated to make the city’s ground water drinkable by 2018. A similar cleaning plant for the contaminated soil was also built.

All told, Lockheed expects to spend $190 million on the cleanup.

The Water Cleanup Process:

* 9,000 gallons of ground water each minute is cycled through the treatment plant, built at Foy Park, near the eight injection wells used to funnel contaminated water out of the ground.

A) Water is extracted from the well and piped to the top of air-stripping tower.

B) The TCE and PCE are removed from the water at the top of air-stripping towers, where the toxic compounds are vaporized and separated from the water.

C) The compounds are then stripped from the air by vapor-phased carbon filter.

D) Clean air is vented from stacks.

E) The water travels back down tower and is piped through a liquid-phase carbon filter.

F) Water is sent on its way to Burbank’s municipal water system, where it is blended with water from the Metropolitan Water District.

The Soil Cleanup Process

* Covering 103 acres, the soil cleanup effort is less extensive because pollutants in soil do not travel as fast as those in water. Roughly 30 acres of contaminated soil were scooped out and deposited at hazardous waste landfills. The remaining soil is treated by the following process:

1) Hundreds of feet of pipes, running to depths of up to 150 feet, vacuum air from the soil.

2) The air is pumped through carbon filters that separate the TCE and PCE from the air.

3) Clean air is vented from stacks.

4) Toxic compounds are removed and stored in recycling.

5) Some of the air is pumped back into the soil to draw up more toxic compounds.

The Subterranean Environment:

* The San Fernando Valley is home to a ground-water basin containing millions of gallons of slow-moving water. The water generally runs from west to east and northwest to southeast, anywhere from 50 to 250 feet below the surface.

The ground-water basin, contaminated in part by Lockheed decades ago, was also polluted by hundreds of commercial and industrial sources. There are five additional superfund cleanup-sites in the San Fernando Valley.

Cleanup Facts

* Lockheed uses eight extraction wells in the water cleanup effort. Seven of them are in a line along the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks between Hollywood Way and Victory Boulevard. The eighth is near the treatment plant at Foy Park.

* As many as 100 people have worked on the cleanup, but now the number hovers between 10 and 15. Mostly, they run the treatment plants and oversee the mechanics of the cleanup.

* Similar but less-extensive cleanup efforts are underway in Glendale and North Hollywood, as well as in Burbank.

* If the cleanup in Burbank is not completed to the satisfaction of monitoring agencies such as the EPA by 2018, the treatment plant will be kept running and other measures will be considered, though none have been mentioned thus far.

Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency, Lockheed-Martin Corp., city of Burbank and the Regional Water Quality Control District. Researched by JON STEINMAN/Los Angeles Times