Cleanup continues at Menasco property

Paul Clinton

SOUTH SAN FERNANDO -- While state water regulators have told a former

Burbank aerospace firm it must clean up its contaminated property,

similar efforts are already underway at a nearby site. The California

Regional Water Control Board has put pressure on ITT Industries, now

based in Yorba Linda, to clean up 11 acres that straddle the borders of

Burbank and Glendale.

With less prodding from regulators, owners of the 20-acre Menasco

property, at 100 E. Cedar Ave., have spent the past year cleaning up soil

and ground water contamination. State regulators are monitoring the

effort.

“The whole process speaks to our commitment to the issues, to being

proactive, not reactive,” said Gail Warner, spokeswomen for site owner

The B.F. Goodrich Co.

City officials are eyeing four acres of the Goodrich property for

possible use as a park in the South San Fernando District, City Manager

Bud Ovrom said. Menasco is one of the largest remaining open properties

in the city and is next to a three-acre site owned by the city that could

also be part of a park, officials said.

“The Menasco property is clearly the best opportunity for that,” Ovrom

said of the park. “But neither one of us are in much of a rush.”

Ovrom said the city is pursuing state and federal funding to defray

the cost of building a park in the area.

In June, Goodrich sold the Menasco property to Crown Realty and

Development. However, Goodrich continues to clean up soil and water

contaminated during more than five decades of manufacturing.

Crown has leased the property to Western Studio Storage, which can

occupy the site for another five years. With another two years of cleanup

efforts still planned, Menasco is likely to stay as it is for some time,

Crown spokesman Jim O’Neil said.

“There are significantly higher and better uses for that property, but

those are yet to be developed,” O’Neil said. “There are no deals.”

From the late 1930s to 1992, Menasco -- a division of previous owner

Coltec Industries Inc. -- manufactured landing gear for aircraft. Some of

its products were sold to Lockheed Corp. for use on the P-38 ‘Lightning’

Fighter, Warner said.

After extensive testing was initiated in 1997, Goodrich officials

developed a vapor extraction system to treat noxious fumes from the site.

The company has spent about $3 million on the cleanup so far, said Bruce

Amig, Goodrich’s manager of remedial services.

Amig said the company has extracted soil samples from 30 locations on

the property.

“We’ve put a lot of pins in this cushion,” Amig said.

Ovrom and other city officials said no park would be built on the

Menasco property until it is proven to be safe. If need be, the city

could push for additional testing and cleanup, Ovrom said.

“It clearly requires that you clean it up to a higher standard for a

park,” Ovrom said. You have to make it clean enough so a kid could eat

dirt.”

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