FULLERTON : McColl Dump Site Test Dig Delayed

A three-week test dig at the McColl toxic waste site, set to begin Wednesday behind rows of homes in northwest Fullerton, has been delayed until today or Friday.

Delays in setting up equipment at the former dump site have workers slightly behind schedule, Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Terry Wilson said Wednesday. Work should begin no later than Friday and end late this month.

The test at the McColl site, which is considered one of the most extensively polluted sites in California, is a rehearsal for one of the cleanup methods proposed by the EPA. The EPA has suggested several solutions for McColl but is leaning toward digging up the waste and burning it at high temperature.

The agency is expected to choose its cleanup method next March.

This month, workers inside a three-story-high, sealed tent will dig about 135 tons of the estimated 150,000 tons of waste at the site and grind it into small, burnable pieces. The test will show the feasibility of the digging and burning process, EPA officials have said. No incineration of the waste will take place during the test, and the ground-up waste is expected to be put back in the ground when the test is complete.

The McColl site, used to dispose of refinery wastes during World War II when disposal laws were much less strict, has resulted in years of complaints from neighbors of foul odors and health problems. Neighbors have received upwards of $20 million in settlements with the developers that built the homes close to the site in the 1970s and a group of oil companies whose wastes were dumped at McColl.

EPA officials have said that once the agency chooses a method of settling the McColl problem, they will try to force the oil companies to pay for the cleanup. But the oil companies, which prefer leaving the wastes in the ground under layers of sealing materials, have said they are not responsible for the cleanup and predict a long legal battle with the EPA.