Anaheim Council Allows PCB-Laden Scrap Yard to Stay Open

A salvage-yard owner who admitted Tuesday that he had stored a 50,000-ton pile of residue containing nearly double the level of toxic PCBs considered hazardous by the federal government won a reprieve from the Anaheim City Council, which voted to keep him in business.

During a sometimes heated four-hour public hearing, a majority of the council agreed that Orange County Steel Salvage Inc. should not be closed--despite the vehement protests of Mayor Donald R. Roth and Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler.

While keeping the firm open, the council added a series of new restrictions on its operation. And its owner pledged that he would acquire new equipment to treat incoming waste and to work with local and state officials to get rid of what Roth called a “huge mountain” already on the site.

The council’s vote was good news to the handful of metal peddlers and other scrap-shop owners who told city officials Tuesday that closing the company would close their businesses too.

“It literally puts me and other peddlers like me out of business,” said one man, who added he deals only with “clean materials” and not hazardous items. Steel Salvage owner George Adams Jr. said he does business with about 500 of the smaller shops.

State health services spokesman James McNally told the council that the latest samples taken from the salvage yard show that the pile of shredded junk exceeds the state maximum for PCBs of 50 parts per million for solid waste. The Anaheim site contains an average of 98 parts per million, he said.

Floyd A. Farano, an attorney for the firm, conceded that independent tests conducted by Steel Salvage show about 100 parts per million of polychlorinated biphenyls, which cause cancer in rats and mice and are a suspected human carcinogen.

Adams said after the meeting that better testing methods accounted for the difference between the results of the latest tests and independent tests he had conducted in the past that showed levels of PCBs below the state’s legal threshold.

Because of “a history of noncompliance,” the city’s assistant zoning director and the community development and planning director recommended to the council that it revoke Steel Salvage’s permits.

But the council voted to allow Adams to stay open as long as the firm disposes immediately of any new hazardous waste produced--regardless of the cost. Adams also pledged to acquire equipment that is now available which eliminates lead from waste. He said he will continue to monitor for pieces known to contain PCBs, which were widely used as insulation for electrical transformers and hydraulic systems until their manufacture was discontinued in 1976.

As for the existing waste, the state Department of Health Services hopes to work with the firm through court-ordered agreements to dispose of the 50,000-ton pile.