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Cleanup begins at long-empty Superfund site in South Gate
The EPA says cleanup at this South Gate lot could take a few months for the soil and a year or longer for the groundwater.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Cleanup is just beginning for a contaminated industrial site in South Gate, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials who are leading the effort.
The small southeast L.A. city was built on industry — in the early 20th century it boomed with auto, chemical and other manufacturers.
That legacy also left it with three Superfund sites, areas designated by the federal government as highly contaminated with hazardous waste.
The three sites are all clustered on a large lot framed by Southern and Rayo avenues. A residential neighborhood is nearby.
“This site is less than 50 yards away from a home, so we want to make sure that we clean it to a point where we can feel confident,” said South Gate Mayor Joshua Barron.
South Gate is home to about 90,000 people, the majority of whom are Latino. The median household income is about $74,500 and the state has identified the city and surrounding communities to be disproportionately burdened by pollution and its health effects.
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This site, dubbed the Southern Avenue Industrial Area, housed a screw manufacturing business for 30 years, then a carpet adhesive plant. Both businesses are now defunct and the site was designated by the federal government as a Superfund site in 2012.
The pollution at this property was compounded by pollution from companies next door.
One of the two adjacent Superfund sites was used by Cooper Drum Co., a steel drum recycling plant. A group of Cooper Drum’s former customers, including chemical manufacturers and oil companies, are paying for part of that cleanup. The other site, previously operated by an aircraft rivet and conveyor belt manufacturer, is still in the analysis and planning stages.
Why does it take so long to clean up a Superfund site?
First, a site has to get officially listed. Then the EPA has to analyze the property to understand exactly what and where contamination occurred. Identifying who is responsible for pollution can take time, result in lawsuits, or not be resolved at all. If the responsible party is defunct or can’t pay for the cleanup, then taxpayers have to foot the bill.
EPA experts need to then analyze the site and develop a cleanup plan, and funding needs to be secured. The cleanup can take years, even decades. The federal government has been slowly working through a backlog of sites, identifying those of highest importance through the National Priorities List, of which there are 97 in California. Learn more about the Superfund process here.
At the Southern Avenue site where the EPA broke ground Tuesday, analyses commissioned by the agency found widespread lead and other toxic contamination in the soil, as well as a plume of trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, in the groundwater.
Officials say the plume has not affected the deeper aquifer South Gate and other southeast L.A. cities rely on for drinking water.
In 1986, the city closed water wells contaminated by the neighboring Cooper Drum site.
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EPA project manager Kelia Liang explains the cleanup effort in South Gate on Tuesday.
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Erin Stone
/
LAist
)
“ The water is safe to drink,” said Mike Montgomery, superfund director for the EPA. “What we're trying to do is prevent it from becoming impacted.”
EPA officials estimate soil cleanup will take about two months. Groundwater cleanup planning will start in 2027 and could take a year or more. The whole effort is estimated to cost between $45 million and $60 million, primarily through federal dollars.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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