Cleanup at Asbestos-Tainted Site to Start : Pollution: A former manufacturing plant in Carson will bury contaminated soil at the site where the soil was found.

By TED JOHNSON

Oct. 12, 1989 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Cleanup is scheduled to start today on a former Carson manufacturing site contaminated with asbestos, which can cause cancer.

Thousands of cubic yards of contaminated soil will be buried at the 65-acre site, where Manville Corp. operated a pipe manufacturing plant from 1937 to 1982. The soil will be buried in two dumps on the west side of the site, at 2420 E. 223rd St.

According to the state Department of Health Services, this is the first time that a South Bay company has been allowed to permanently bury toxic waste on the same site at which it was found.

“It’s less costly and a lot safer,” said Allan Hirsch, a spokesman for the state Health Services Toxic Substances Control Division. “You want to try to move the asbestos as little as possible.”

When inhaled, asbestos fibers have been shown to cause lung cancer and respiratory ailments, Hirsch said.

The site is across the Dominguez Flood Control Channel from the Arco Oil Refinery and borders the Ventura Transfer Co. The nearest residential area, Lincoln Village, is three-fourths of a mile away. Hirsch said residents will not be at risk during the project because the soil will be sprinkled with water to keep the asbestos fibers from entering the air.

Whether the site posed a health risk to residents in the past is uncertain, said Bill Kelly, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Obviously,” Kelly said, “it is possible the asbestos migrated from the wind off the site.”

During the four-month project, workers will move about 70,000 cubic yards of soil--enough to fill 28 Olympic-size swimming pools--to two heavily contaminated areas of the site, said Dave Samson, a spokesman for Denver-based Manville Corp. These two disposal areas, at the western edge of the property, already contain about 325,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil.

According to state documents, soil studies have found that in some areas, including the disposal sites, asbestos concentrations ranged from 40% to 90%. Concentrations in most areas were less than 1%.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board found that asbestos had not contaminated the ground water, Hirsch said. It also found no evidence that, once buried, the asbestos would migrate through the ground to other areas, he said.

State agencies will continue to monitor the site’s two disposal areas once the project is done, Hirsch said.

One of the dumps, a 7 1/2-acre disposal area at the northwest edge of the property, will be covered with a foot of fresh soil and a layer of sod. A 6 1/2-acre waste dump at the southwest corner will be covered by a foot of soil topped by asphalt.

Hirsch said deed restrictions will prohibit anyone from developing the areas or digging into them without state approval. Nevertheless, Trammell Crow Co., a developer of business and industrial parks, has agreed to purchase the property provided the cleanup is a success, Samson said.

Walter Rakowich, a partner in Trammell Crow’s South Bay office in Carson, said the firm plans to build a business park at the site. Samson and Rakowich declined to reveal the sales price.

Although Manville will retain ownership and maintenance responsibilities of both disposal areas, it will lease the asphalt lot to Trammell Crow, which plans to use it to store trucks and vehicles, Samson said.

Manville, formerly the Johns-Manville Corp., manufactured asbestos-lined cement pipes and insulation at the site from 1937 to 1982.

When Manville began dismantling the site in 1983, it informed the Department of Health Services that asbestos was present on the property, Hirsch said. Over the years, asbestos had been dumped in waste piles, pits and settling ponds on the site.

In 1984, the state asked Manville to begin an investigation into the extent of the soil contamination. Manville submitted a work plan for the investigation in 1985, and the department approved the results of the investigation in November, 1987.

In August, 1987, the South Coast Air Quality Management District had cited Manville for violating a regulation that requires sprinkling or coating of areas where dust can be released into the air, Kelly said. Manville pleaded no contest and was fined $1,026, he said.

After the citation, Manville installed a water sprinkling system to keep the fibers from freely floating in the air, Samson said.

Manville started a feasibility study in 1987 on its options: among them, moving the asbestos off the property, perhaps out of Los Angeles County.

“That was by far the most expensive (solution),” Samson said. “That also posed the greatest risk.”

Moving the asbestos off the site would have cost $119 million, according to an engineering study included in the cleanup plan. That would also have risked asbestos spreading through the air during transport, Samson said.

“Hauling all the asbestos off probably poses the greatest danger,” said David Reizer, an assistant planner for the city of Carson. “You’re talking about hauling stuff out and hauling stuff in, not to mention the traffic side. It would be a very monumental project.”

Instead, Long Beach-based Earth Technology Corp., a firm that specializes in planning hazardous-waste cleanups, came up with the plan to keep the asbestos on the site yet salvage most of the property. The Department of Health Services approved that plan in May.

Manville will spend about $3 million on the cleanup, including the cost of maintaining the area, Samson said. It also includes the cost of studies performed by Earth Technology for Manville over the last five years, he said.

Manville has done a similar project in Toronto, and is using on-site burial in cleaning up one of its sites in Manville, N.J., Samson said.

“It’s not a new experimental technique,” Hirsch said. “It’s been done elsewhere.”

During the project, workers will wear respirators and protective suits while they move the soil, Samson said. They also will continue to water down the soil to prevent it from blowing to nearby industrial plants during the move, Samson said.

BACKGROUND can raise the risk of lung cancer. Recent studies suggest that drinking asbestos-contaminated water can increase the risk of gastrointestinal and pancreatic cancers.