Nausea. Headaches. Voice conditions and rashes. Strange-tasting water.
Jean Luna and her neighbors have complained and worried about all of them.They blame K-West Recycling Corp., a small oil refinery near their homes that once recycled as much as 10,000 gallons of used oil every day. It also has been the site of leaking hazardous chemicals.
Owners of the property, at 1474 W. 1500 South, say the residents are mistaken about the source of their problems and complaints. Besides, the owners say, the oil refining business was there first.
State regulators don't know whether health problems around the six-acre site can be linked directly to K-West and prior companies that operated there, because the state has not tested the soil or groundwater.
But the regulators know enough that they want to stop used-oil refining and hazardous-waste storage - work that has been done periodically on the property since 1988.
Officials from two government divisions last week issued a notice of intent to deny a permit for the storage and an outright revocation of the permit to refine used oil. If the notice and revocation hold through appeals, the site will be closed, both actions state.
Officials based their decisions on six years of regulation by the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining and one Environmental Protection Agency inspection that has revealed:
- Drums of hazardous materials leaked into the ground.
Three owners since 1988 brought as many as 700 drums of lead-based automotive undercoating and other solvents on-site during 1988.
"Many drums are badly corroded, topless or visibly leaking," the EPA wrote in an inspection report on April 4, 1992. Officials now estimate about 300 of the drums are still on-site, none of them apparently leaking. Some still on the property and not protected by berms contain mixed solvents such as acetone, methylene chloride and ferric chloride. Those chemicals at one time were leaking, according to the EPA, but have since been put into new drums.
- Owners illegally moved about 262 drums in 1988 to A-1 Quality Self Storage in Salt Lake City. As many as 60 are still stored at the site. So far, none appears to be leaking.
- Owners failed to routinely inspect the drums for leakage and keep an operating record.
- Owners operated the facility without insurance that would pay for closure or cleanup of accidental spills or explosions.
- Owners illegally mixed used oil with chlorinated organic solvents in a 32,000-gallon tank. The tank is still full of the waste.
- K-West, though it held a permit to recycle used oil, is not an incorporated business and, therefore, could not meet financial obligations. K-West incorporated at one time but later was involuntarily dissolved.
In all, documents list the site's second owner, Paul Timothy, as having violated at least 10 state regulations governing storage and recycling of hazardous materials while he owned the property from 1988 to 1991.
Timothy could not be reached for comment.
The state ordered Timothy to stop bringing hazardous waste onto the property after officials discovered the violations. He also was told to sample and test all of the material there, redrum the leaking containers and clean up the spills.
Timothy did not comply with the orders, according to state records. He then sold the property and waste to Michael Hobby, who hoped to clean up the site through bioremediation and begin operations.
He immediately spent $150,000 repairing the refinery and re-drumming the corroded barrels.
But his plan to clean up the material in the barrels ran amok when Hobby, who was listed as one of K-West's three directors when the company incorporated, learned the state wouldn't allow him to use bioremediation, which is a process that uses waste-eating organisms.
Hobby now says the state colluded with the city of Woods Cross to use him "as the fall guy" to pay for cleanup. He says the state Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste led him to believe he could clean up the waste using bioremediation, which would be less expensive then paying for disposal through private contract.
"We can't afford to do the cleanup for the state," Hobby said. "If we're allowed to do business, then we could clean it up."
The state gave Hobby and others "ample opportunity to make a business work there," said Christine Cline, environmental health specialist at the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. "But we have a responsibility to see that people operate their businesses within regulations. I mean, the regulations were written to protect the public and environment."
She said K-West, Hobby's company, and its predecessor, Golden Eagle Environmental and Recycling Services, owned by Timothy, "were playing a game they didn't understand," meaning their knowledge of environmental regulations was weak.
Now, K-West has "clearly abandoned the site," leaving regulators to predict the area will become an EPA Superfund cleanup site, Cline said.
That cleanup couldn't come soon enough for the nearby residents, who liken K-West to Ekotek, the waste-ridden site in Salt Lake City that has become an EPA Superfund project that has cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
Describing days K-West operated, Luna said, "The smell gets miserable. It stings my lungs and my eyes; it's like an oily sewer smell. You can't open your windows to get any air."
She and her neighbors fear more.
"Many health problems have occurred in the area because of heavy pollution - three deaths due to cancer, asthma, headaches, voice conditions and rashes," wrote resident LaMoyne Anderson in a statement to the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. "The safety of our family, friends and neighbors are a big concern to us."
Anderson admits the families of those who died of cancer can't link the deaths directly to K-West or other refinery operations nearby. "But they all passed away within three months of each other and lived within a block of each other, he said. "One was 35 years old, and they'd all lived in this area for a while."
But Luna is mistaken, Hobby said, because "the days she complained about, we weren't even operating. They're smelling the others around here."
Officials won't know how contaminated the site is until it closes, Cline said. Because under rules of closure, responsible parties (or the EPA) must take drill samples and analyze possible contamination.
K-West has until April 6 to appeal the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste's notice of intent to deny and until March 24 to submit a remediation plan to the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.
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(Additional information)
3 owners have operated at K-West site
Three owners have bought and operated equipment on what is now known by residents as K-West Recycling Corp.
1966: Charles Stewart buys one acre at 1474 W. 1500 South, builds equipment used to re-refine used oil in 1967 and names his company Golden Eagle Refining. Stewart re-refines as much as 2,000 gallons of used oil a day periodically for about 10 years.
July 1987: Paul Timothy buys the land and machinery from Stewart, purchases an additional five acres to the west, opens business as Golden Eagle Environmental and Recycling Services Inc. and brings drums of solvent on-site.
Aug. 29, 1991: Michael and June Hobby buy land and equipment from Timothy, inherit waste, open business as K-West, make burner fuel out of used oil.
Dec. 17, 1992: Stewart forecloses against K-West for non-payment of a note on his original one acre. K-West denied access to the equipment and site.
Now: Stewart occupies his one acre and hopes to buy the adjacent five acres from Hobby, clean up the site and reapply for a permit to reclaim used oil. He has not yet secured financing, he said.
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(Chart)
Another Ekotek?
Criminal violations
K-West No*
Ekotek Yes
Groundwater contamination
K-West Likely
Ekotek Yes
Soil contamination on-site
K-West Likely
Ekotek Yes
Complaints from neighbors during operations
K-West Yes
Ekotek Yes
Involvement of Environmental Protection Agency
K-West Yes
Ekotek Yes
*None Alleged or Charged
Source: Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste and Deseret News Files