The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered two aerospace companies to complete more than $21 million in cleanup work at a Superfund site near Hollywood Burbank Airport, the agency announced Wednesday.
Following two intense years of negotiation, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. have agreed to expand groundwater treatment and do more groundwater contamination studies at the San Fernando Valley Area 1 Superfund site – a 20-square-mile area of contaminated groundwater located mostly in North Hollywood and Burbank, federal officials said.
RELATED STORY: North Hollywood Superfund site gets $1 million groundwater cleanup settlement Since 1989, roughly $250 million has been spent in the building and operating of Superfund remedies by a number of responsible parties, said Caleb Shaffer, the EPA’s section chief for Superfund Region 9.
“The bunching of these three orders really represent a significant upgrade and expansion in terms of the amount of contamination that would be captured.
Lockheed and Honeywell make up two of the larger parties that the EPA has worked with that are responsible for contamination at the site.
Honeywell must build four wells to extract contaminated groundwater on the western end of the North Hollywood site and build a treatment system for harmful volatile organic compounds to prevent further groundwater contamination, according to the EPA.
In addition, Lockheed Martin Corp. must design, build and operate wells to extract contaminated groundwater for the eastern portion of the North Hollywood site, according to the EPA.
Federal officials say the system, which will cost about $10 million and will be completed around 2020, will prevent the further spread of groundwater contamination.
LADWP has seven well fields near or within the San Fernando Valley Area 1 Superfund site.
Over the last decade, groundwater from the agency’s well fields has contributed to about 12 percent of the city’s water supply, according to the EPA.