SOS Plan to Burn Wastes Denied : Air Quality Board Aims at Pressing U.S. Military for Solution

A plan by Space Ordnance Systems to burn tons of explosive wastes in the desert in northeastern Los Angeles County was rejected Wednesday by an air quality hearing board, in a decision aimed at pressuring the military to help solve the defense contractor’s waste disposal problem.

The ruling is likely to intensify a standoff between the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Defense Department over which agency should bend its rules to help SOS dispose of more than 1,800 drums of explosive wastes being stored illegally at the company’s two manufacturing plants in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In a brief discussion before the 4-0 vote, Coralie Kupfer, who chairs the air district hearing board, said SOS should use the denial to convince the Defense Department that there is “no alternative” but to burn the wastes at a defense installation.

‘Keep on Truckin”

Jack C. Dutton, vice chairman of the board, said that, if SOS can safely truck the wastes to the desert site, it should “keep on truckin’ ” them to a military base.

“I hope they made a wise decision,” Alan E. Opel, manager of engineering services at SOS, said after the vote.

He said he hopes the Defense Department takes the wastes, because, “Otherwise, we’ll be playing Ping-Pong forever.”

A Defense Department spokesman in Washington said late Wednesday that the department’s refusal so far to take the wastes “will be examined in light of the decision today.”

The ruling could also affect a final decision by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on whether to revoke zoning permits that allow SOS to operate its Mint Canyon plant in Agua Dulce and its Sand Canyon plant near Canyon Country.

The commission took a preliminary vote in January to strip SOS of its zoning permits because of alleged mismanagement of toxic and explosive wastes. However, the panel since has said it will give SOS until this month to make progress in solving its hazardous-waste problems. The commission is scheduled to take up the issue at its meeting next Wednesday.

SOS, a subsidiary of TransTechnology Corp. of Sherman Oaks, manufactures explosive components for spacecraft and decoy flares used by fighter planes to deflect heat-seeking missiles. SOS has about 400 employees. The parent company reported sales of nearly $109 million in the last fiscal year.

Since last spring, SOS has been under orders from state and county agencies to dispose of explosive wastes that have been stored at its Mint Canyon and Sand Canyon plants without required permits. The waste has been accumulating at a rate of about one drum per day, according to the company.

The orders were issued after state and county health agencies raided the SOS plants and cited the firm for several hazardous-waste violations.

SOS, which said it could find no commercial hazardous-waste site that would take the explosive wastes, in December applied for an open-burning variance to destroy the material at a leased site about 25 miles east of Lancaster, near the San Bernardino and Kern counties lines.

The firm said it would perform the burns only at times when the wind would not push the emissions toward populated areas. SOS would need about 75 burn days to eliminate its waste inventory, company officials said.

May Not Be Final Word

The board vote Wednesday may not be its final word on the request, because the panel is scheduled to begin considering a companion variance request on April 25.

To expedite consideration of its plan, SOS had applied both for an “interim,” or 90-day, variance from open-burning restrictions, as well as a regular variance that would last a year. Although the board denied the interim variance, it could make a different ruling on the other request if SOS presents new evidence concerning the safety of its plan or the posture of the Defense Department.

Although the hearing, spread over five days beginning in February until Wednesday, focused on weather and residence patterns in the high desert, the question of where SOS should turn for relief from its problem was always in the background.

The company submitted into evidence several letters from high-ranking Defense Department officials, including one from Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, stating that the military is prevented by law from taking a contractor’s wastes unless the contractor has no alternative. The open-burning plan is such an alternative, the agency said.

The most recent of the letters, from Carl J. Schafer Jr., the department’s director of environmental policy, added that the department would “have to evaluate, design and construct facilities, divert personnel and resolve legal issues” before it could accept the wastes.

“Until the nonavailability of a suitable alternative civilian site or specific air quality benefits of burning on a (defense) installation are addressed, I must maintain my position,” he said.

Formerly Used Ft. Irwin

SOS formerly disposed of its explosive wastes at Ft. Irwin in San Bernardino County, but the Army base was put off limits to contractors in 1980. The company later burned some of the wastes on its plant property until 1983, when it was stopped by county fire and air district officials. The material, which has been accumulating since then, is submerged in water and stored in drums in the open.

State health and county fire officials had urged the hearing board to grant the variance, arguing that the wastes pose an imminent danger of fire or explosion. Some residents near the SOS plants also spoke in favor of the burning plan.

Antelope Valley Opposition

But the variance request was strongly opposed by Antelope Valley residents, who deluged the air district with mail. From 20 to 40 of the opponents were on hand during most of the sessions, driving as far as 100 miles to attend.

Desert residents expressed fear that, if the variance were granted, SOS would later be allowed to put a permanent explosive-waste incinerator at the burn site. The company has said it wants to build an incinerator, possibly at the burn site.

Air Force officials at Edwards Air Force Base near Mojave also expressed concern about the burn plan, saying it might interfere with test flights in the area. Members of the hearing board said they found the Air Force objection ironic. “As I understand, the Air Force does have some association with the Department of Defense,” Kupfer remarked before the vote.

Grant to Competitor

SOS officials had pointed out that the hearing board recently granted an SOS competitor, the Bermite Division of Whittaker Corp., an open-burning variance to destroy a smaller quantity of explosives at its Saugus plant.

They also contended that the open burning would have little effect on air quality, a contention that air district lawyers did not dispute.

“Will the emissions from the proposed burn be hazardous? No,” Howard Gest, a lawyer for SOS, told the board. The burn plan, he said, “is a safe and environmentally sound proposal and the best method to dispose of this waste.”

But district lawyer William Freedman argued that SOS is not legally entitled to a variance because its problems are within its “reasonable control.”

He also told the board that, if it granted the variance, it would be unable to refuse other area defense contractors who generate explosive wastes.