California’s Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) on Tuesday said it has ordered Union Pacific Railroad Company and Bayer CropScience, Inc. to clean up the former Blair Southern Pacific Landfill at South 51st Street in Richmond.
Although there is said to be no immediate public hazard at the site fence line, the DTSC said waste at the site poses an “unacceptable long-term risk.”
The order comes as part of the state’s Hazardous Substance Account Act, a superfund law created to address hazardous waste sites and demand environmental accountability.
Both UPRR and Bayer now must clean up, safely remove and dispose of the radioactive materials in a permitted hazardous waste landfill. They also may face penalties of up to $25,000 per day if they do not comply with the order.
According to a DTSC press release, investigators found elevated levels of lead, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and radioactive material at the location, which is parallel to Interstate 580.
Learn more about Blair Southern Pacific Landfill and how its safety has been monitored over the years in a YouTube recording of a November 2023 public meeting.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, companies that operated on the land before UPRR and Bayer bought it used to dump radioactive material there along with industrial and non-industrial waste, the press release said.
“Investigators found elevated concentrations of radioactive material on site, and these materials emit ionizing radiation above normal background levels,” the press release says. “In addition, the site is uncapped and sits along a creek and the Bay. Site wastes can wash off during each rain and high tide.”
Richmond has more than 100 hazardous waste sites and two federally recognized Superfund sites, United Heckathorn and Liquid Gold Oil Corp., a former oil recycling operation at Hoffman Boulevard and South 47th Street.
The order comes as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun having discussions with Richmond residents about a second cleanup of the United Heckathorn site. It’s in the Lauritzen, Parr and Santa Fe channels of the Richmond Harbor and consists of dangerously high concentrations of DDT and dieldrin. A second public meeting about why the first cleanup was inadequate is set for May 21.
