Paul Clinton
SOUTH SAN FERNANDO -- State regulators have issued a warning to a
former Burbank aerospace manufacturer after the company missed a deadline
to submit its plans to clean up its property.
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board gave ITT
Industries until June 20 to produce a detailed report on the 11-acre
property, which is split between Burbank and Glendale at Alameda Avenue
and Flower Street. The agency had asked ITT to submit its plan by May 19.
"They have been dragging their feet," said Dixon Oriola, senior
engineering geologist at the board. "(The letter) is how we build a case
that leads to far more complicated enforcement action against them."
ITT, now based in Yorba Linda, asked for an extension in a May 18
letter. In the letter, ITT said it could not meet the following day's
deadline because "the site is complex and our efforts have been directed
toward achieving a comprehensive and effective remedial plan."
ITT spokesman Tom Glover sad the company would cooperate with
environmental regulators.
"We have every intention of having the plan to the water board by June
20," Glover said Monday. "We felt the information and the plan would be
better if we had a little extra time."
City officials have also pressured ITT to clean up the 4-acre portion
of the property in Burbank to pave the way for the construction of a Home
Depot store on the same spot.
ITT manufactured thermometers and other fluid-control systems for
aircraft from the mid-1960s to 1994. Regional board inspectors have found
chromium and other heavy metals in soil at the property and have traced
ground water contamination to the firm.
Lockheed-Martin Corp., Menasco, ITT and other firms that had defense
plants in Burbank have been forced to address contamination on their
properties since the Environmental Protection Agency first discovered
toxic chemicals in the early 1980s.
The ITT property is the city's last contaminated property to require
clean-up, city officials said.
