EPA steps in to stabilize pile of waste

Frustrated that the new owner of contaminated beachfront property in Oxnard is moving too slowly with cleanup plans, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun its own emergency stabilization of a massive waste pile next to sensitive wetlands.

The 43-acre Ormond Beach property, once controlled by metal recycler Halaco Engineering Co., was purchased and leased last September by Chickadee Remediation Co. The firm intends to restore the property for residential development.

But Robert Wise, an official with the EPA’s emergency response section, said the company was slow in submitting its plan for stabilizing the giant waste pile. The slag heap covers about two-thirds of the property and is more than 45 feet high in some spots.

“They couldn’t meet the deadlines,” Wise said. “Finally, we got tired of them dragging their feet and decided to do it ourselves.”

Although Chickadee turned in a preliminary work plan, Wise said the company did not follow up with a specific safety plan, detailing how regulators could monitor air quality during the stabilization process and how it would comply with federal hazardous waste standards.

“If they can’t put together a plan in a timely manner, how can we trust them to actually do the cleanup?” Wise said.

The agency’s $2.5-million emergency stabilization plan will take about two months to complete and involve bulldozers and other equipment to reshape the slag piles to make them less susceptible to erosion from wind and rain, Wise said. The sides of the new piles will be covered in mesh made of coconut fiber to further protect them from the elements.

Additionally, EPA contractors will install fencing and public warning signs. Chickadee would be responsible for the cost of the stabilization, officials said.

Dick Sloan, president of Chickadee Remediation, said his company paid $2.6 million for 28.5 acres of the Halaco property that includes the slag heaps. He said it spent an additional $270,000 for a 24-year lease on the 15 acres where the old smelting plant is located.

He disputed the EPA’s cost estimate for stabilizing the site until the cleanup can begin.

“We had estimated we could do that part for a couple of hundred thousand dollars.... You can certainly do that for way under a half-million,” he said. “If they’re planning to spend more than $2 million, that’s ridiculous. That number is totally out of line.”

Sloan believes that contaminates at the site -- including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, lead, magnesium, nickel, zinc and radioactive metals -- can be treated on site and the waste piles then re-contoured for future use.

“Looking at the data, there’s no justification to dig up that material, haul it off somewhere and bury it,” said Sloan, adding that Chickadee could complete its long-term cleanup within two years.

“Even though it looks like heck, the levels of contaminants and toxicity is not that high,” Sloan said.

Environmentalists and regulators say they are pleased that something is being done to arrest the ongoing degradation to surface and groundwater near the site.

“This is a huge threat to water quality when you know what constitutes this ‘wall of waste,’ ” said Francine Diamond, chairwoman of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, which revoked Halaco’s water discharge permit in 2003, forcing it to cease operation. “We were well aware that the [surrounding] wetlands was totally impacted and contaminated. It was also leaching into groundwater, so we needed to be aggressive.”

In January 2006, the water board asked the EPA to consider adding the Halaco site to its national priorities list of Superfund sites. A formal recommendation to include Halaco on the list is expected this spring.

Sandi Matsumoto, project manager for the Nature Conservancy’s office in Ventura County, said that since 2002 her organization and the California Coastal Conservancy have purchased more than 540 acres of wetlands adjacent to the Halaco site with a goal to ultimately acquire similar property nearby to revitalize habitat for wildlife and to restore the ecosystem.

Together, the Ormond Beach wetland, an adjoining 900 acres of freshwater wetlands and the 1,500-acre Mugu Lagoon make up Southern California’s largest coastal wetland.

The ultimate cost to clean up the property is unknown. The EPA estimates that there is as much as 500,000 cubic yards of slag on the site, enough waste to fill nearly 24 football fields 10 feet deep.

An environmental watchdog group that once sued Halaco to curb its polluting operation said Chickadee’s plans to treat contaminants on site is insufficient to protect public health.

“What we’d like to see is the whole property properly remediated,” said Kira Schmidt, executive director of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper. “Long-term, the entire pile and the soil underneath needs to be removed.”

greg.griggs@latimes.com