Meeting Wednesday in H.B. will update cleanup status of former Ascon Landfill

A meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Huntington Beach will address how state employees and project managers are proceeding with an 18-month cleanup at the former Ascon Landfill site.

Officials will discuss technology used for the cleanup and how air quality is monitored and odors are mitigated. They also will take questions from residents.

The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 2000 Main St.

Residents also can call the project’s 24-hour public hotline at (714) 388-1825.

Another meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. June 6 at Edison High School, 21400 Magnolia St.

The 38-acre property at the southwest corner of Hamilton Avenue and Magnolia Street was a waste disposal facility from about 1938 to 1984, with primary oversight from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The area’s final cleanup began this year and is expected to continue through 2020. Work on the landfill has included weed abatement, groundwater monitoring, site maintenance, strengthening earthen berms, removing tarry waste and improving the interior roadway.

Efforts to improve the area began after the state demanded cleanup of the site’s five waste-filled lagoons and six oil wells in 2003. Much of its waste came from oil drilling until 1971, when the landfill became a depository for construction debris, according to the Ascon website.

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