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San Fernando Valley

Page history last edited by Administrator 15 years, 2 months ago

San Fernando Valley:

Deep plume map:

This and more plume maps are available here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/3dc283e6c5d6056f88257426007417a2/501fef37208275ff88257007007dce4c!OpenDocument

The San Fernando Valley Superfund Sites are located in the eastern portion of the San Fernando Valley (see the map), between the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains. The San Fernando Valley is an important source of drinking water for the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the cities of Glendale, Burbank, and San Fernando, La Canada- Flintridge, and the unincorporated area of La Crescenta. There are four separate areas comprising the San Fernando Superfund Site:(1) Burbank & North Hollywood, (2) Glendale/Crystal Springs, (3) Verdugo, and(4) Pollock/Los Angeles.

The information on this page applies to the San Fernando Valley Superfund Sites overall. For information specific to the four individual areas, click the links above and visit the web pages for the separate areas (or see additional links below).

San Fernando Valley Site overview: http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/webdisplay/oid-87ab7077fd4dd34888256613007b884c?OpenDocument

Addressing Chromium Contamination in the San Fernando Valley:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/sfund/chromium/index.html

Lockheed Martin, Glendale

U.S. EPA signs agreement with Lockheed Martin for chromium investigation in Glendale: Firm must investigate former Loral Librascope site

Release date: 05/19/2008

Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, (213) 244-1815, cell (213) 798-1404, arcaute.francisco@epa.gov

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today entered into an agreement with aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin to investigate the site of Loral Librascope, a former electronic weapons manufacturer in Glendale, Calif., for chromium contamination.

Loral Librascope, which produced electronic weapons and combat systems between 1949 and the 1990s, is bordered by Sonora Avenue and Flower Street. The company, acquired by Lockheed by merger in 1996, joined a 2000 consent decree to implement the EPA’s cleanup of solvent-contaminated groundwater in the Glendale Superfund site area.

“The EPA is requiring Lockheed Martin to perform a subsurface contamination investigation at the former Loral Librascope site as part of our ongoing investigation of soil and groundwater chromium contamination in the Glendale area,” said Keith Takata, EPA’s Superfund Director for the Pacific Southwest region. “Cleaning up the contamination is essential to protecting the San Fernando Valley groundwater resources from further chromium contamination.”

The EPA has been active in groundwater cleanup efforts in the San Fernando Valley area since the early 1980s when solvent contamination was first discovered. Last year, the EPA launched a focused investigation on chromium groundwater contamination within the Glendale Superfund site area that will lead to cleanups at chromium sources impacting Glendale area groundwater.

Chromium is a metal found in natural deposits as ores containing other elements. The greatest use of chromium is in metal alloys such as stainless steel, protective coatings on metal, magnetic tapes, and pigments for paints, cement, paper, rubber, composition floor covering and other materials. Its soluble forms are used in wood preservatives.

For more information on chromium, please visit:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/sfund/chromium/index.html or http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/dw_contamfs/chromium.html

Link to EPA's original document posted above:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/2dd7f669225439b78525735900400c31/bb8730f52ab4e4178525744e0070c97d

Threats and Contaminants:

Information regarding threats and contaminants specific to the four separate areas that comprise the San Fernando Valley Superfund site can be obtained from the web pages for those separate areas:(1) Burbank & North Hollywood,(2) Glendale/Crystal Springs,(3) Verdugo, and(4) Pollock/Los Angeles.

EPA's link to the San Fernando Valley Superfund Site (see bottom of paragraph for link):

History: In 1980, after finding organic chemical contamination in the groundwater of the San Gabriel Valley, the California Department of Health Services (DHS) requested all major groundwater users to conduct tests for the presence of certain industrial chemicals in the water they were serving. The results of testing revealed volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in the groundwater beneath large areas of the San Fernando Valley. The primary contaminants of concern were the solvents trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), widely used in variety of industries including metal plating, machinery degreasing, and dry cleaning.

TCE and PCE have been detected in a large number of production wells at levels that are above the Federal Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), which is 5 parts per billion (ppb) for each of these VOCs. The state of California MCL is also 5 ppb for TCE and PCE. MCLs are drinking water standards. Other VOC contaminants in the San Fernando Valley have also been detected above the Federal and/or State MCLs.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/webdisplay/oid-87ab7077fd4dd34888256613007b884c?OpenDocument

EPA's link to contaminants plume maps for San Fernando Valley:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/webdisplay/oid-206b11c6c0525efb88256e29007d5df2?OpenDocument

Excerpt EPA's NPL Site Narrative for San Fernando Valley (Area1)

North Hollywood:

Conditions at proposal (October 15, 1984): San Fernando Valley (Area 1) is an area of contaminated ground water in the vicinity of the North Hollywood section of the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. This area is part of the San Fernando Valley Basin, a natural underground reservoir that represents an important source of drinking water for at least 3 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The contaminated ground water, which underlies an area of approximately 5,156 acres, contains trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), and to a lesser extent, carbon tetrachloride and chloroform, according to analyses conducted by the California Department of Health Services, as well as numerous local government agencies. The State's recommended drinking water guideline for TCE and PCE (5 and 4 parts per billion respectively) are exceeded in a number of public wells in this area. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar933.htm

Excerpt EPA's NPL Site Narrative for San Fernando Valley (Area2)

Los Angeles/Glendale:

Conditions at proposal (October 15, 1984): San Fernando Valley (Area 2) is an area of contaminated ground water located in the vicinity of the Crystal Springs Well Field in the Cities of Los Angeles and Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. This area is part of the San Fernando Valley Basin, a natural underground reservoir that represents an important source of drinking water for at least 3 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The contaminated ground water, which underlies an area of approximately 6,680 acres, contains trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), according to tests conducted by the California Department of Health Services, as well as numerous local government agencies. The State's recommended drinking water guidelines for TCE and PCE (5 and 4 parts per billion respectively) are exceeded in a number of public wells in this area. To alleviate this contamination, wells are either taken out of service or blended with water from clean sources to ensure that the public receives water with TCE/PCE concentrations below the State's guidelines.

http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar934.htm

EPA Link to Hexavalent Chromium Superfund Clean-Up (Glendale & Surrounding Area):

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/2dd7f669225439b78525735900400c31/bb8730f52ab4e4178525744e0070c97d

Excerpt EPA's

NPL Site Narrative for San Fernando Valley (Area 3)

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY (AREA 3)

Glendale, California:

Conditions at proposal (October 15, 1984): San Fernando Valley (Area 3) is an area of contaminated ground water in the vicinity of the Glorietta Well Field in the City of Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. This area is part of the San Fernando Valley Basin, a natural underground reservoir that represents an important source of drinking water for at least 3 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The contaminated ground water, which underlies an area of approximately 5,200 acres, contains trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), according to tests conducted by the California Department of Health Services, as well as numerous local government agencies. The State's recommended drinking water guidelines for TCE and PCE (5 and 4 parts per billion respectively) are exceeded in a number of public wells in this area.

http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar935.htm

Excerpt from EPA's

NPL Site Narrative for San Fernando Valley (Area 4)

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY (AREA 4)

Los Angeles, California:

Conditions at proposal (October 15, 1984): San Fernando Valley (Area 4) is an area of contaminated ground water in the Pollock Well Field area in the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. The area is part of the San Fernando Valley Basin, a natural underground reservoir that represents an important source of drinking water for at least 3 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The contaminated ground water, which underlies an area of approximately 5,860 acres, contains perchloroethylene (PCE), according to tests conducted by the California Department of Health Services, as well as numerous local government agencies. The State's recommended drinking water guideline for PCE (4 parts per billion) is exceeded in a number of public wells in this area.

http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar936.htm

Lockheed opened a plant in Burbank in the 1930s, and during WWII employed over 80,000 people in producing aircraft there. In 1943 Burbank became home to Lockheed's secret aerospace development facility, formerly codenamed the Skunk Works, which was located at Plant B-1, 2300 Empire Avenue, and covered over 100 acres adjacent to the Bob Hope/Burbank Airport. Lockheed-Martin moved out of Burbank in the early 1990s, but left behind a toxic legacy of its activities, including a plume of contaminated groundwater. The many chemicals improperly disposed of on site over the Skunk Works sixty-year Burbank tenure included solvents TCE and PCE, and hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen.

The former Lockheed facility is considered a major polluter of the designated San Fernando Valley Superfund Site (Area 1), which defines a four-mile zone of contaminated groundwater. Groundwater monitoring from 1981 to 1987 revealed that approximately fifty percent of the water supply wells in over 5254 acres of the eastern portion of the San Fernando Valley were contaminated. In 1984 TCE and PCE groundwater contamination was discovered in water supply wells in Burbank. The area is part of the San Fernando Valley groundwater basin, an aquifer that had provided drinking water to over 800,000 local residents. Contamination sources at Lockheed included underground storage tanks, sumps, degreasers, and pipes. Exposure to groundwater contaminants can occur through ingesting drinking water, washing or bathing, and through inhalation of VOCs in vapors during showering.

In 1996, thousands of Burbank residents sued Lockheed after learning the company had paid out $66 million in secret settlements to 1,357 residents, and $30 million to workers for illness and loss of property value. In 2002, Lockheed Martin Corp. agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle all outstanding claims by residents who contend that they were sickened by decades of chemical contamination at the site. Besides civil lawsuits, Lockheed has had to pay more than $265 million since the late 1980s to clean up underground drinking water supplies, and they could spend as much as $100 million more in the next two decades.

http://www.invisible5.org/index.php?page=burbank

BURBANK, CA (12/10/2000). Lockheed Martin Corp. will pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit by more than 300 Burbank residents who claimed they got sick from toxic chemicals released during decades of manufacturing, the Associated Press reports. Superior Court Judge Carl J. West gave final approval to the settlement on Friday, calling it "a reasonable and fair settlement."

http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-press.pl?&&20004346&GP&&SME&

LA Times Article: Lockheed Linked to Chromium 6 Pollution

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/21/local/me-15246

EPA Contamination report for San Fernando Valley:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/vwsoalphabetic/San+Fernando+Valley+(Area+1+North+Hollywood+and+Burbank)!OpenDocument&ExpandSection=-1,-8 <http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/vwsoalphabetic/San+Fernando+Valley+(Area+1+North+Hollywood+and+Burbank)!OpenDocument&ExpandSection=-1,-8>

Lockheed Martin, Burbank-

Following is a case report from Dr. David Ozonoff supporting the plaintiffs (employees) filing suit against Lockheed Martin, Burbank for TCE exposure & illnesses as a result. This report carefully outlines the scientific methods used to identify illnesses resulting from TCE exposure as well as listing several studies conducted on the subject. Arguments are discussed relating to the presence of biases and other issues in the majority of the studies that have been conducted to date (as of around the year 2000).

burbank[1].fed.rpt.6.05.doc.