EPA Gives California Hazardous Waste Landfill Green Light

Date: July 15, 2010

Source: News Room

The US EPA is allowing Waste Management's Kettleman Hills hazardous waste landfill to restart operations now that it has cleaned up cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from the site. However, the company must also search for the source of other PCBs and remove them, as well. Kettleman City residents suspect that PCBs in the 1,600-acre landfill are responsible for a recent increase in birth defects in town. Waste Management officials assert that there is no evidence linking the landfill to the trend. However, after the EPA inspected the site, they did their own testing and found other PCB-contaminated areas. Officials are mindful that high-tension power lines in the area, pesticides and chemical fertilizers routinely sprayed on nearby fields may also be factors.

To learn more, visit EPA's website: www.epa.gov/region9/kettleman/.

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