Burbank to Pay 2nd Time for Disposal of Toxic Waste

Burbank has approved spending more than $38,000 to dispose of hazardous waste that the city had already paid $7,995 to get rid of in 1984.

The waste--36 drums of materials contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a suspected carcinogen--had been shipped to the Martha C. Rose Chemical Co., a Missouri firm that eventually went bankrupt, officials said.

Public Service Director Ron V. Stassi called the Rose company’s activities a “scam operation.” He said Rose Chemicals improperly disposed of the 36 drums by storing them in huge rented warehouses, instead of incinerating the waste as required by federal law.

Stassi said Rose Chemicals, which had been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, was selected by the city because it submitted the lowest bid for disposal.

The EPA in February, 1986, found the Rose Co. had violated federal disposal laws, and the agency planned to revoke the company’s license, Stassi said. By March, Rose had ended operations and abandoned its disposal site, leaving behind millions of pounds of PCB and PCB-contaminated items from nearly 700 cities and companies, including Burbank, he said.

According to federal law, the Burbank Public Service Department still had legal responsibility for disposing of the waste, even though it had already paid Rose Chemicals $7,995. “The people who generate the waste are responsible for the waste until it is fully and properly disposed of,” said City Atty. Douglas C. Holland.

Stassi said a number of cities and companies who sent waste to Rose Chemicals banded together with the EPA and selected Clean Sites, a nonprofit organization, to clean up the site.

Burbank agreed to participate in an agreement with Clean Sites for the proper disposal of its waste. By paying $38,066, the city--with the blessing of the EPA--will be protected from any further liability or legal difficulties that may result from the cleanup, Stassi said.

“We have every reason to believe that both federal and state authorities will do everything allowed by law to enforce the laws that make Burbank absolutely liable” for its waste disposal, Stassi wrote in a memo to the council.

Under their agreement, Clean Sites will handle Burbank’s obligation, he wrote.