Crews repair toxic landfill

Cleanup crews are wrapping up an emergency repair on a southeast

Huntington Beach toxic waste dump, giving local residents a preview

of an eventual long-term cleanup of the site.

The winter’s rains pushed the five toxic lagoons on the site to

near capacity, causing officials with the state Department of Toxic

Substances Control to worry that the hazardous materials dumped there

might break the landfill’s levees and spill into streets and storm

drains.

Known as the Ascon-Nesi landfill, the toxic site is across the

street from one of the city’s biggest parks and Edison High School.

Many residents said they’re glad to see the berms fortified but are

concerned about the recent occurrence of strong odors coming from the

site.

“You really smell it when we walk our dogs at night,” said Allen

Gazey. “It hits pretty strong. It comes out of nowhere.”

That smell, construction crews said, is a petroleum byproduct

released from decades-old drilling muds -- originally displaced from

the soil years ago when drills first penetrated areas around

Huntington Beach in search of oil.

The strong odors have made some residents feel dizzy or even

nauseous, but project manager Thomas Cota said the fumes are

nontoxic. Petroleum has a very low odor threshold, he explained, and

the human nose can detect just a few particles of the substance.

Jay Chen of the South Coast Air Quality Management District said

his agency is continually monitoring the site during the emergency

repair to ensure toxic gases don’t hit the homes surrounding the

site. Seven mobile air quality stations have been posted around the

perimeter, and none have detected high concentrations of hazardous

substances like benzene, arsenic or styrene -- all believed to be

stored at Ascon-Nesi.

Chen said excavation crews also wave hand monitors over each dig

to monitor for gas bubbles that might be released when the dirt is

disturbed.

“If they detect something, they immediately halt the dig and cover

the space with foam,” he said.

Cota said work crews are taking other steps to decrease odor

emissions. They constantly monitor wind directions and occasionally

apply vanilla scents to the excavation site.

Representatives from all agencies involved in the project held an

open house at the Edison Community Center on Oct. 5 to explain the

excavation. Many residents at the event said they were concerned

about the odors coming from the cleanup and worried that they were

dangerous.

“This site is near a high school, a park and hundreds of homes,”

Mary Anne Spignoli said. “A lot of residents want to see the

substances removed, but they don’t want the area disturbed in the

process. It seems like the cleanup teams are going to have to walk a

tightrope to get this thing moving.”

Cota said the temporary excavation is part of a longer-term plan

to permanently clean Ascon-Nesi. The Department of Toxic Substances

Control has documents that trace dumping at the site to at least

seven companies, and those companies will have to pay for the

permanent excavation. Cota said he was working with other agencies

including the City Council to create a permanent cleanup plan for the

site. The planning alone could take 18 to 24 months, he said, and the

cleanup another two to five years.

In the short-term, Cota said, his department will continue to

reinforce the berm.

“We we’re very fortunate that we didn’t have a huge release,” he

said.

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