Cleanup of Toxic Dump in Escondido Begins

Huge gondola trucks, spewing fumes from their diesel engines, idled in line, awaiting a wash-down by a crew of helmeted, plastic-clad workers wearing breathing apparatus.

The scene Tuesday signaled the start of a six-week cleanup of toxic waste-laden soil at the Chatham Brothers’ former petroleum-recycling yard in southwestern Escondido. Watching with smiles were state Department of Health Services officials and members of the group Escondido Neighbors Against Chemical Toxics.

The fumes and a brisk westerly wind soon moved the onlookers into a sheltered spot, away from the trucks getting a final wash before leaving the contaminated “hot zone.” To the south, earthmovers were busy loading plastic-lined trucks, which were circling the site that had been a petroleum waste dump for 40 years before it closed in 1980.

Although security was relaxed for two hours Tuesday so neighbors and reporters could get a close view of the cleanup, monitoring and emergency procedures were in full force.

Last week, neighbors were notified by hand-delivered circulars that if they heard three short blasts, or a 15-second single blast, on an air horn, they were to go inside their homes, close all doors and windows and shut any ventilation system that draws air from the outside. The signals indicate the possible release of potentially dangerous gases or dust from the site.

Upon hearing either signal, the two dozen workers on the site are to evacuate until an all-clear is issued. Air-monitoring and wind-speed measurement equipment will alert crews to a potential hazard or to winds above 15 m.p.h., which force an automatic shutdown.

Despite the ominous preparations, neighbors are delighted that the cleanup has finally started.

“It’s a happy, happy day,” ENACT member and Chatham neighbor Margaret Herman said. “I’m really relieved that they have started the cleanup. It’s been here so long.”

When the Chatham Brothers Barrel Yard began operations in 1940, hardly a house was within sight, and no permits were required to recycle the used petroleum products. Now the property is ringed with upscale, tile-roofed subdivisions and modest bungalows, making the danger of the chemical sludge more immediate.

Karen Baker, state project manager at the site, said removal of the buried wastes began Monday with 10 truckloads, each carrying 20 tons of contaminated soil to Kettleman City, Calif., and an approved toxic waste dump.

On Tuesday, 20 trucks made the 321-mile trip up Interstate 15, west on I-10 and north on I-5 to the Central Valley disposal site--a pace that must be maintained six days a week if the more than 9,000 tons of materials are to be dumped before May 8, when stricter federal regulations go into effect.

After that date, the contaminated dirt cannot be dumped untreated. Instead, all toxic materials must be treated by “the best available technology,” state officials said, which means the sludge would have to be incinerated, at an estimated cost of $11 million.

After nearly nine years of studies, tests and public hearings, state Toxic Substances Control Program officials announced last month that the Chatham sludge removal would begin in mid-March.

Baker said Tuesday that the cleanup should be completed before the May 8 deadline.

Soil will be removed to a depth of 14 to 15 feet in some areas, Baker said. Dirt will be trucked in to fill the holes, a move that should take another two weeks.

However, ENACT member Herman pointed out that “this is only the beginning.” The state must also develop a plan to remove contaminants in area ground water before the toxins spread to Felicita Creek, which would threaten Lake Hodges Reservoir, owned by the city of San Diego. The reservoir provides drinking water for the downstream communities of Rancho Santa Fe and portions of Solana Beach and Encinitas.

John Scandura, chief of the state health department’s site mitigation unit, said ground-water purification is a complicated and long-range project. It could include building underground dams around the property to prevent seepage of water from the site or purification of on-site water.

A plan to accomplish the ground-water cleanup should be completed in about a year, Scandura said.

“That’s when we neighbors will celebrate,” Herman said. “After they have gotten it all.”