It is a concern that hazardous waste facilities can cause problems long after they are closed. In fact, most environmental problems today are results of actions taken long ago. An interesting example is provided by the Stringfellow acid disposal pits in Glen Avon, a small Southern California town near Riverside.
For 17 years, the pits, operated by James Stringfellow, received chemical wastes from several nearby counties. In 1972, with little fanfare, the hazardous waste site was closed. Local residents had petitioned to have the site closed, due to worries that heavy rains might wash dangerous materials into nearby water supplies for the area.
By 1989, the Stringfellow pits were the center of passionate controversy. The approximately 34 million gallons of acids, pesticides and toxic metals had made the site one of the the worst hazardous waste areas in the nation. Toxins were threatening the local water supply and possible contamination had already occurred. Poisonous materials have traveled from the original waste site for undetermined distances. Who was to pay for the clean up?
Stringfellow attorney, Chris Bisgaard, argued that the state had located, designed and supervised construction of the site. Geologists had determined, in 1955, that the old granite quarry location was well-lined with impermeable granite, making it suitable for the purpose intended. Bisgaard fault geologists for this incorrect description.
Barbara Noble, representing the state of California, stated that the fault lay with Mr. Stringfellow, the waste generators and the operators of the pits.
Named as defendant were such waste contributors as General Electric, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Alumax, Inc., Montrose Chemical Corporation and Northrop Corporation.
The stakes were high. Clean-up cost were estimated to be about $6,000,000. Even after a final settlement was made, in1992, 4000 individual injury claims remained to be settled.
Who should pay and for what amount of the total was each party responsible?
FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND EXPLORATION
1. Create a Stringfellow Acid pit Timeline, using all the newspaper accounts included. How long did the facility operate before problems were discovered? What relationship did these early concerns have to later ones?
2. How did the public and media treat Stringfellow Acid Pits in the early seventies? How has those attitudes changed? What has caused those changes?
3. Suppose you were a politician, running for office in the seventies. Would the Acid Pits been part of your political platform? Why or why not?
4. In 1978, The Los Angeles Times made no mention, whatsoever, of the Stringfellow Pits. This is the year that massive rains caused the Pits to fill with water, overflowing and containing several sites in Glen Avon. Some of these sites included the drainage channel, bordering a local school, empty lots in which schoolchildren played, and a heavily used road. Why, do you suppose, was there is so little mention of these events?
5. What did Superfund do? Why was it created? How did Superfund affect ongoing problems at the Stringfellow Acid Pits?
6. Library Research: (a) What is the current Superfund situation? How did the record evaluated by parties with various concerns?
(b) What do you see as the most important local problem with hazardous waste deposition?
(c) In the past, few records were kept of hazardous waste management. How has the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act changed that? How are older hazardous waste disposal site problems different from their more modern counterparts? What do you see as future possible problems and solutions?
