EPA OKs more hazardous waste for Calif. toxic dump blamed by residents for birth defects

EPA OKs more hazardous waste for Calif. toxic dump

KETTLEMAN CITY, Calif. — The Environmental Protection Agency has allowed a central California landfill that local residents blame for birth defects to keep accepting hazardous waste from Superfund sites.

The landfill next to Kettleman City is run by a division of Waste Management Inc., the nation’s largest trash hauler. In a letter released by the company Wednesday, the agency said officials decided to allow the waste to be disposed of at the site after an area where cancer-causing PCBs were found was cleaned up.

The letter also said Waste Management must investigate a nearby spot at the facility where the company’s independent tests found three new samples that tested positive for PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, and address that contamination as well.

In April, the EPA told the landfill it could lose the ability to receive hazardous Superfund waste if it did not clean up the first area where PCBs were found, and the agency reserves the right to issue a new notice should the new problem go unaddressed.

Kettleman City residents have blamed the toxic waste dump for at least 11 birth defects since 2007. But state waste management officials have said there is no evidence linking the landfill to the deformities.

The state is investigating the defects.