Anaheim Firm Gets 2nd Extension on Storage of Shredded-Car Waste

For the second time in a month, the Anaheim City Council on Tuesday gave a steel salvage firm temporary permission to continue stockpiling shredded car and appliance residue containing toxic PCBs.

The council granted the extension after a lobbyist for Orange County Steel Salvage Inc. presented a report, commissioned by six shredder companies in the state, that concluded that the Brea-Olinda landfill could handle the waste without causing “measureable effects on ground water quality in the area.”

Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler was the only council member to vote against the extension. Questioning its safety, Pickler said, “We should stop shredding. Period.”

40,000 Tons

The salvage company has been stockpiling some 40,000 tons of the residue while awaiting approval to dump the waste in the local landfill. The company assured the council last month that it is no longer shredding.

The company plans to present the same report May 9 to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, which could decide whether to allow the material in the landfill. The landfill stopped accepting the waste in 1984 when the state began requiring that the waste, called fluff, be handled and disposed of as a hazardous material.

Shredder waste is designated moderately hazardous by the State of California because of its high lead levels. The recent finding of PCBs in the Anaheim yard’s waste has raised new concerns among officials for the state Department of Health Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are known to cause cancer in rats and mice and liver damage in humans.

‘No Real Benefit’

In the report commissioned by the shredder waste industry, Washington State-based ICF Northwest concluded that the Brea-Olinda landfill could accept the material without a clay liner. Such a protective measure “would provide no real benefit” because the materials involved have “extremely long travel times,” the consultants wrote.

“Under extremely high rainfall conditions, peaks were found to arrive at the property boundary in 6,000 to 300,000 years,” the report stated.

On March 18, the City Council gave the steel salvage company 30 days to continue stockpiling the waste. At the time, George Adams Jr., owner of the family-run business, and his lobbyist, Philip L. Anthony, told officials they were awaiting new information on whether the waste is hazardous. On Tuesday, the council extended the stockpiling permission to May 13, four days after the water quality control board hears the issue.

Meanwhile, the city has not yet decided whether to prosecute Adams for stockpiling the residue, City Atty. Jack White said Tuesday. State toxic waste officials asked the Orange County district attorney’s office March 12 to consider criminal prosecution. The district attorney’s office said it would review the case with Anaheim’s attorneys and decide whether there is sufficient evidence for prosecution.