Crews repair toxic landfill

Rains swelled lagoons at Ascon-Nesi dump, forcing officials to order temporary fixes.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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