Firms May Get Bill for Cleanup

Several businesses near the Bob Hope Airport may be forced to foot part of the $108 million bill to clean up the contaminated groundwater in the area. The detection of new contaminants in an aquifer beneath a former aircraft manufacturing plant has led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to add the property owners to a list of those who should contribute to the cleanup. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, Home Depot Inc. and Public Storage are among the parties contacted in July by the EPA they may be potentially responsible for footing some of the bill needed to contain the chemicals found in the groundwater. They join a long list of companies and private trusts already contributing to the first phase of the clean up. For more than 20 years the EPA has operated extraction wells to draw out water from the aquifer contaminated by aircraft manufacturing from the decades when Lockheed Martin owned the land straddling Burbank and North Hollywood. The airport authority purchased the property from Lockheed in 1978 and contends the aerospace giant agreed as part of the sale to defend the authority against any claims related to damages from the company’s operations. The government agency’s position, however, is that as the owner of the property – now named Bob Hope Airport – the authority is responsible, as are the others who received the letter last month. “At this point we have made no demand,” said Kelly Manheimer, a remedial project manager with the EPA. “We have notified (the owners) that they should participate to the extent they have liability.” The contamination needing containment is limited to certain areas of the aquifer. Chemicals found there include trichloroethylene and tetrachlorethylene, degreasers used in aerospace manufacturing. But last year, additional contaminants, chromium and dioxane, were found in the groundwater, necessitating additional cleanup. Among the property owners notified by the EPA of being potentially responsible for helping to pay are Home Depot Inc., Public Storage, Hawker Pacific Aerospace, on Sherman Way; Los Angeles By-Products Co., Pacific Magnetic and Penetrant Co., Benz Disposal Co., and Aircraft Service Intl, Inc. Lockheed, however, isn’t completely off the hook as the EPA has identified the company as being the source of the contamination. Secret manufacturing The aircraft maker’s association with the property dates back to the 1930s, and then purchased the airport in 1940. During World War II, the company made the famed P-38 Lightning fighter plane. Following the war, the Skunk Works was where the secret aircraft such as the U-2 and the SR71 Blackbird were developed and built. The authority acquired the airport property in 1978 and later purchased other parcels from Lockheed. The authority’s position is that in selling off the land, Lockheed had agreed to defend and indemnify the authority against any claims stemming from the years that Lockheed operated there, said authority Executive Director Dan Feger. The matter is now pending in federal court. Effect on airport That the airport is being asked to contribute to the clean up is a “poor public policy” that will be placed on the backs of the traveling public. If the airport does end up paying it will then have to raise parking rates, and rents to concessionaires and tenants who will then pass that cost to the public, Feger said. There are several possible outcomes as to how the $108 million price tag will be divided up, said Michael Massey, an assistant regional counsel for the EPA. The property owners can agree among themselves how much each should pay. If no agreement is reached, then the EPA can step in with an order. The least likely option is that the agency will just go ahead with the clean up and then bill to the owners because the EPA would prefer the owners work it out among themselves, Massey said.