Anaheim : Salvage Firm Gets OK to Resume Shredding

An auto salvage firm has been granted permission to resume its shredding operation to generate money to clean up a 50,000-ton pile of waste that contains toxic levels of PCBs.

An agreement between the state attorney general’s office and Orange County Steel Salvage Inc. will allow the firm to shred metal as long as the new waste passes state toxic control standards.

In addition, the company must treat or dispose of 800 tons of lead-contaminated waste within 45 days and must prepare a plan to dispose of about 50,000 tons of shredded cars, appliances and other metallic objects that have accumulated at the site since 1976.

State health officials determined last year that the pile contained toxic levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) which have been shown to cause cancer in animals.

The state shut down the shredding operation in March when Arizona authorities barred the company from dumping the lead-contaminated waste in landfills in that state.

Shredding operations resumed briefly last month to test a new chemical treatment process that renders heavy metal wastes insoluble, reducing the threat that such waste would contaminate water supplies.

The new process will allow the company to resume dumping treated waste in local municipal landfills, said George Adams Jr., who owns the salvage company.