Posted on · The pits were built in the 1960s to store hazardous waste from a nearby paper mill and have been on the EPA’s clean-up list since 2008.
Posted on · The companies say the protection offered by the cap now covering the site is sufficient, and are opposed to the expensive cleanup. The EPA's plan calls for ringing the site with a temporary dam and digging up 212,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments, enough to fill about 16,000 dump trucks.
Posted on · The announcement comes two weeks after the federal agency said an unknown amount of dioxins — which have been linked to birth defects and cancer — may have washed downriver from the San Jacinto Waste Pits after floodwaters jarred loose a protective cap of fabric and rock designed to keep them from spreading.