EPA says Ormond Beach toxic waste has stabilized

A mountain of hazardous waste created by a shuttered metals recycling plant adjacent to Oxnard’s Ormond Beach wetlands has been stabilized, federal regulators announced Friday as they took government officials on a rain-soaked tour of the site.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long and representatives of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) piled into two sport utility vehicles and were taken on a guided tour of the 43-acre beachside property formerly operated by Halaco Engineering Co. The tour was organized by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, who are overseeing the $5-million project.

Rob Wise, the agency’s on-site coordinator, said the 11-week stabilization project involved reshaping the giant slag piles on the eastern side of the property into one pile to make them less susceptible to erosion and to keep them from sloughing into wetlands. The consolidated pile remains 40 to 50 feet high, but Wise said most of the man-made mountain is now covered by coir matting, made of coconut fiber, which reduces dust and helps keep the heap intact.

New surveys will provide a better estimate of just how much waste is left after nearly 40 years of smelting aluminum and magnesium at the Halaco facility, which shut down in 2004 after the company went bankrupt. Wise’s current estimate of 710,000 cubic yards of waste is enough hazardous material to fill more than 1,000 standard-size homes.

Concerns about trespassers -- who left behind graffiti and tire tracks from off-road vehicles and bicycles -- have prompted the city of Oxnard to consider condemning buildings on the property so they can be removed.

“What the community wants is to demolish, tear down and get rid of the ugly eyesore that we now have great concerns about,” said Long. “If I could just wave a wand and this whole site is gone tomorrow, that would be our best possible outcome.”

At Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting, Long is expected to urge her colleagues to formally support placing the Halaco property on the national priority list so it can be designated a federal Superfund site. The designation would provide additional funding for long-term cleanup.

Friday’s tour was also a chance for officials to meet Wayne Praskins, regional EPA project manager for the Superfund program, who will oversee long-term cleanup at Halaco. Praskins estimated it would take at least two years just to determine what needs to be done to make the property safe for humans and the wetlands’ wildlife.

Preliminary estimates suggest it could cost more than $150 million to remove the Halaco waste and transport it to approved landfills, Wise said.

greg.griggs@latimes.com