Four Companies Take Next Steps in California Superfund Cleanup

by: Duane Craig

The Environmental Protection Agency reached an agreement with four companies to get the Montrose and Del Amo Superfund sites cleaned up in Torrance, Calif., according to an EPA press release.

This agreement continues the process of closing the contamination books on these notorious sites polluted with monochlorobenzene, a raw material used in making DDT, as well as benzene, naphthalene and ethyl benzene. The two sites are adjacent to one another. Owners of the Montrose site made DDT from 1947 until 1982 while the Del Amo site was a rubber manufacturing facility.

The four companies will build and operate a groundwater treatment system that will pull and treat 700 gallons of water each minute. That equals a million gallons a day. Shell started cleaning up the Del Amo site in 1999 when it put impermeable caps on waste pits and set up a soil vapor extraction system. Over the years, DDT-contaminated soils have been removed from local neighborhoods as well. The cost of the new actions is expected to be a little more than $14 million, with construction of the water treatment facility taking 18 months.

Honeywell Tests For Possible Contamination In Soil, Groundwater

August 3, 2010 - For years, residents and city officials have wondered what may have leaked from industrial sites in Spring Valley near St. Anthony’s Church. Now, the site’s current owners have begun testing soil and groundwater near the site to find out — but residents remain in the dark.

The city council on Monday approved a request from MACTEC Engineering and Consulting Inc. of Traverse City, Mich. to complete up to eight soil borings in the Ladd Road right-of-way in the vicinity of Third and Fourth streets. That's a short distance from the Honeywell plant (formerly known as Hobbs) and the location of former Bassick plating operations at U.S. 6/Route 89 and Strong Avenue. Before 2002, the neighboring sites were a single piece of property owned by the same company.

On Monday, city superintendent John Schultz told the city council that the current owner of the Honeywell property had performed tests in a roadside ditch near the property and had found some contaminants. City engineer Jack Kusek said this morning the tests are "just part of their ongoing testing program." The company wanted to test the Ladd Road right-of-way "to keep checking how well they’re cleaning up the groundwater," Schultz said.

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