Lockheed Says It Will Pay $52 Million for Water Cleanup : Deadline Passes in EPA Action Against 31 Firms

Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. has offered to pay $52 million toward the Superfund cleanup of Burbank water supply wells, an amount that would cover more than half the cost of the 20-year cleanup but still leave millions of dollars to be paid by other possible polluters or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA officials declined comment Monday on Lockheed’s offer. Nor would they provide details of settlement proposals by other firms, which had until Monday to make a “good faith” offer to aid the ground water cleanup or face possible legal action.

The EPA set the Monday deadline for 31 Burbank-area companies and landowners it deemed “potentially responsible” for chemical pollution that has forced Burbank to idle its water supply wells and make up the difference with purchased supplies.

Seven of Burbank’s 10 municipal wells are contaminated by chemical solvents--principally perchloroethylene, or PCE, and trichloroethylene, or TCE--and the city also has stopped pumping from the three cleaner wells to avoid drawing in tainted water.

16 Responses

Terry Wilson, an EPA spokesman in San Francisco, said late Monday the agency had received “at least sixteen responses” from the targeted firms “and we are reviewing all those.” He said it might take several days for the agency to evaluate the responses.

At least one firm other than Lockheed--Weber Aircraft--offered money for the cleanup, according to a lawyer for Weber.

Companies that resist paying for Superfund cleanups but are later found liable for the pollution can be forced to pay cleanup costs and treble damages, creating a strong incentive to settle.

Under orders from state water quality officials, the targeted firms are paying consultants to conduct soil and ground water tests to determine if the companies leaked or spilled solvents into ground water. So far the only firm clearly implicated in the pollution problem is Lockheed, which has found high levels of contamination in water beneath its Burbank complex within a few hundred feet of some of the Burbank wells.

A vast area of the San Fernando Valley, stretching from North Hollywood east into the Verdugo Mountains, has been designated for Superfund cleanup due to solvent pollution of ground water tapped for about 15% of area water supplies. The federal Superfund program targets the nation’s worst toxic waste sites for cleanup by those responsible or by the EPA if the polluters cannot be found.

Others Affected

Along with Burbank, affected suppliers include the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the city of Glendale and the Crescenta Valley County Water District. In all cases, the main pollutants are PCE and TCE, common solvents that are believed to raise the risk of cancer if consumed at low levels over many years.

In its settlement offer, mailed to the EPA on Friday, Lockheed said it would spend up to $52 million to build an elaborate ground water treatment system, and would shed its legal responsibility after running the system for the first six years of its 20-year life.

Under the federal Superfund law, the EPA is to use federal money for cleanup only if those responsible cannot be found. Moreover, a firm that helped pollute a Superfund site can be made to pay the whole cleanup bill if the liability of other firms cannot be proven.

In its proposal, Lockheed called on the EPA to utilize a “mixed funding” approach--using private and federal money--so the cleanup could start if enough private money is not in hand.

Lockheed, which did not concede to the EPA that it was responsible for the pollution, said the agency “lacks sufficient evidence to make an adequate causal connection” between the 31 firms and the pollution of Burbank wells. The contamination is “probably the result of generalized areawide use” of PCE and TCE, Lockheed said, adding that “it would be inequitable to ask one or a few” companies to “bear the entire burden of remediation.”

Lockheed’s proposal also called for the EPA to abandon its plans for a conventional ground water treatment system using aeration, or air-stripping towers, and instead to approve the innovative steam treatment method Lockheed is using to decontaminate ground water beneath its plant.

EPA Could Agree

Wilson, the EPA spokesman, said the alternative method would not automatically create a stumbling block, because the agency can modify its choice of treatment “if it’s proven that an alternative is a better way to go.”

Under the EPA cleanup plan, huge volumes of ground water would be extracted and pumped through a series of aeration towers, which use blasts of air to convert solvents to vapor. The vapor is then trapped in carbon filters which must be recycled or disposed of as hazardous waste. The system would supply the city of Burbank with 12,000 gallons per minute of clean water, enough to meet nearly three-fourths of the city’s current requirements.

Lockheed is pumping about 1,000 gallons per minute of highly polluted water from under its plant, and using steam to remove the solvents. The contaminated steam is fed into a condenser to be converted to liquid, and the waste solvent is recycled for reuse.

Lockheed’s proposal called for treating and providing Burbank with the same volume of water as in the EPA plan, 12,000 gallons per minute.

Lockheed officials said they believe the steam treatment system is more effective and cheaper to operate. Even so, cost data filed by the company with the EPA suggested a total cost well above the EPA’s $69 million estimate for the air-stripping system.

$100 Million Total

For example, the Lockheed data showed an annual operation and maintenance cost of $3.6 million--suggesting more than $40 million would have to be spent to operate the system in the 14 years after Lockheed’s involvement ended. Coupled with the $52 million Lockheed proposed spending, the total cost of the 20-year project would be close to $100 million, according to Lockheed’s figures.

Asked to explain this, Lockheed spokesman Ross Hopkins said the firm thinks the EPA’s cost estimate for the air-stripping system may be too low.

Lockheed did not provide a cost estimate for the entire 20-year project, but Hopkins said he believes the $52 million would cover more than half the total.

The EPA in May gave 27 “potentially responsible parties” until July 7 to make settlement offers or risk being taken to court. The deadline later was extended to Aug. 7 and four more parties were named.

Terry Burt, a lawyer for Weber Aircraft, said Monday the firm had offered “a substantial sum of money” to settle with the EPA, but said he could not be more specific.

A spokesman for Allied-Signal Aerospace Co., whose electrodynamics division at 11600 Sherman Way was deemed “potentially responsible,” said the firm is “certainly making a proposal to the EPA,” but would not discuss specifics.

A spokesman for Ocean Technology, a defense contractor and subsidiary of Alltell Corp. of Hudson, Ohio, said the firm “did not contaminate anything” and so has made no offer. Jim Medeiros of Ocean Technology acknowledged that the company has found pollution in ground water beneath its plant on North Naomi Street. But he said that’s due to a “massive migration” of contaminants originating uphill from the company and flowing underneath it toward the Burbank wells.

Extension Asked

At least two smaller companies--Adler Screw Products and De King Screw Products--responded to the deadline by asking for more time to complete soil tests that will help determine if they contributed to the pollution. Wilson, the EPA spokesman, said late Monday the agency does not intend to grant another extension.

“It’s like asking you to make an offer because you live in Burbank,” complained Barry Groveman, a lawyer for both firms who previously compared the EPA stance to “extortion.”

“As we sit here right now, there is no link” between his clients and the pollution, Groveman said. “You can’t make an offer if you have no facts.”

Groveman, former chief environmental prosecutor for the Los Angeles district attorney, said the 31 firms and property owners fall into three categories: those that know they contributed to the pollution, those that fear they might have, and those that have no idea or did not pollute.

“I’m in the ‘no clue or did not’ category,” said Groveman.

The expensive Burbank cleanup will be but a phase of the effort to reclaim Valley ground water supplies. A pilot aeration treatment plant, built with federal Superfund monies, is already treating a small volume of DWP well water in North Hollywood.

A large treatment system may be constructed near clusters of Los Angeles and Glendale wells along the Los Angeles River.