Chemical Plant in Escondido Closed; Toxic Gases Cited

ESCONDIDO — A small chemical plant here has been ordered closed by city officials after they learned that the company wanted to institute a potentially dangerous chemical synthesizing process that may be unique to the West Coast.

The company, Organo Metals in the 1900 block of West Mission Avenue, had applied to the Air Pollution Control District (APCD) for permission to manufacture trimethyl gallium and trimethyl arsenic, liquids that are used in the manufacture of silicon chips for microprocessors.

APCD officials say the two chemicals would explode and form toxic gases if they came in contact with oxygen or water.

County health officials elaborated, saying they were concerned not only by the toxic nature of the two chemicals and the individual 40 or so chemicals stored at Organo Metals that are used to produce the end products, but also by the potential for hazard during the synthesizing process itself.

“There was the potential for producing toxic gases, including, potentially, arsine gas,” said David Merk, senior hazardous materials specialist for the county health department.

Depending on the level of concentration, inhalation of arsine gas would cause rapid destruction of red blood cells and can cause kidney failure, Merk said. “We’re not saying that arsine gas would necessarily be produced,” he said, “but given the complexity of the types of reactions that could occur in this process, even that remote possibility concerns us.”

Also of concern to health officials was that, while the process would occur under contained conditions--a so-called glove box in which the operator handles the chemicals in a sealed container by use of gloves through sealed portals--there is no secondary containment at the business.

“Most other businesses doing work similar to this have secondary containment, whereby the entire room has a recirculating system so if gases are released, warning lights and buzzers go off and the air is recirculated through scrubbers. This business had no such system,” Merk said.

Escondido city officials said they knew nothing of Organo’s plans to process the two chemicals until the APCD was asked by owner Luis Messina to approve the synthesizing process.

But when APCD inspectors went to the plant to inspect the process, they were denied access by Messina, who claimed that, for insurance purposes, it was too dangerous for the APCD engineer to go inside, according to APCD deputy director Dick Smith.

“Not being allowed in to inspect a process is highly unusual,” Smith said. “I’m still having a problem with that.”

Not only has APCD so far not issued a license for the process, it notified city officials of Organo’s intent.

“We decided to contact the city because we didn’t want another Phoenix situation,” said Smith, referring to the revelation to La Mesa city officials last year that the Phoenix Research Corp. had been producing two of the most toxic gases known--arsine and phosphine--in their city for 12 years. The company’s parent, Union Carbide, subsequently promised to move the firm out of the city.

The news about Organo did not sit well with Escondido city officials, who charged Friday that Messina failed to disclose the exact nature of his work when he began operations a year ago.

“He represented to us a year ago, when he came into the city, that he was not a ‘hazardous occupancy’ and was not using materials that were toxic or unstable,” said Dan McFarland, director of the city’s building department.

“He said he used only small amounts of material, and that they were received through UPS (United Parcel Service),” McFarland said. Based on those declarations, the city allowed Messina to open his business in an industrial park, sandwiched between a motorcycle dealer and a landscape architect’s office.

“But based on what we know now, these materials and the process he was to use evidently are on the outer limits of technology,” McFarland said.

Workers at the industrial park said they had no idea of the nature of Organo’s work, and a secretary who works next door to Organo said she had received UPS parcels on behalf of Messina, without knowing their contents.

McFarland said that, based on the tentative conclusions reached by the APCD and the health department, his office is considering Organo Metals to be a hazardous business. Such businesses require a 60-foot setback on all sides of its property line, and since Organo Metals shares walls with other tenants, the business was ordered closed Wednesday night.

At the same time, the City Council prohibited any new hazardous materials companies from moving into Escondido until the city adopts a more stringent hazardous materials ordinance. Currently, hazardous material businesses can operate in the city’s industrial zones after they disclose the nature of their work and observe the 60-foot setbacks.

City Atty. Dave Chapman said Messina had told city officials that he had not yet begun the synthesis process, and for the past year had only been stockpiling the necessary chemicals and gearing up to start the work.

He said Messina has consistently denied any hazardous nature to his work, but the city will hire an outside chemical consultant to evaluate the process.

“We need to determine what chemicals are there, what hazards they constitute, and whether his business is at the proper location for the kind of work he wants to do,” Chapman said.

Messina could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, David Ryan, declined comment.

Smith at the APCD said his office is not moving forward on Messina’s request for an operating license because county inspectors have been denied access to the building.

He said Ryan has written his office a letter “demanding that we take action to issue the permit.”

The letter, according to Smith, read: “Should you refuse to issue this permit, I have no choice but to seek a mandate from Superior Court. . . . In the event I haven’t heard from you within 10 days . . . we will seek to take the appropriate legal remedies.”

While the business has been shut down, the chemicals are still stored there under lock and key, McFarland said.