A June quarterly monitoring report from a Department of Toxic Substance Control order for the Saugus Industrial Center, former home of the Keysor-Century Corp., revealed groundwater contamination levels many times above the state’s limits as cleanup continues and plans for nearby properties are filed at City Hall.
A Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency spokesman said Thursday the reports are from monitoring wells and not from any sources in circulation for customers.
Water-contamination concerns in that area are expected to cost tens of millions of dollars for the agency for years to come, according to officials in court records and past statements.
The music stopped decades ago at the manufacturing plant in the 26000 block of Springbrook Avenue, where pelletized polyvinyl chloride from vinyl chloride monomers were turned into the 12-inch LPs millions loved from 1958 to about 2002.
An FBI raid that year and subsequent federal criminal plea deal led to a mandated admission from Keysor-Century in a 2005 edition of The Signal, acknowledging a guilty plea to: conspiracy to defraud local, state, and government regulatory agencies; falsification of hazardous air pollutant emissions reports; illegal discharge of a water pollutant; and illegal disposal of hazardous waste for their contamination of the site.
“As a result of (former) site operations, both soil and groundwater have been contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including tetrachloroethylene, TCE, VC, benzene, toluene, 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2- DCA), cis-1,2-dichloroethene, and chloroform,” according to the report.
A voluntary cleanup plan ultimately was agreed to in December 2014, which called for regular monitoring still being generated semiannually for groundwater and quarterly for the soil vapor extraction, according to Tajinder Gill, site manager, in a phone interview Thursday.
Cleanup at SIC
The effort is part of the ongoing bioremediation that’s taking place until the site’s cleanup is deemed complete, Gil said, and there’s no predictable timeline he could give for its completion.
The most recent reports indicate the need for continued progress, which included the removal of 21 pounds of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, per Gill’s report.
It also gave the recent contamination levels detected in the groundwater, which flows about 60 to 90 feet below the surface and toward the east-northeast (Valencia Boulevard).
“During the first quarter of 2025 monitoring event, maximum concentrations of VOCs detected were as follows,” according to the June 3 report. (The State Water Board’s maximum contaminant level, or MCL, refers to the maximum allowable amount of a contaminant that can be in the water supply delivered by a public agency.)
The VOC known as 1,2-DCA was found at 1,500 micrograms per liter (μg/L), with the maximum contaminant level, or MCL, 0.5 μg/L; Trichloroethylene at 570 μg/L, with the MCL at 0.5 μg/L; and vinyl chloride detected at 71 μg/L, the MCL, 0.5 μg/L.
When asked if the levels were concerning, Gil said that’s why the cleanup is taking place, but it will take time.
“The thing is, they are still working,” Gil said, referring to the in-situ bioremediation efforts.
The process, which began a decade ago, involves the injection of emulsified vegetable oil into the wells as part of a complicated process to “promote anaerobic biodegradation of volatile organic compounds in saturated soils and groundwater,” according to his report.
Also in Saugus
SCV Water could say little Thursday, which was due to potential concerns about the area, according to an agency official.
Saugus Industrial Center is next door to Whittaker-Bermite, a nearly 1,000-acre property previously used for explosives and munitions testing from the 1940s to the 1980s.
After the DTSC declared it cleaned up in 2021, the plans began for what would be Sunridge, a 6,500-home, parks and commercial development for the previously undeveloped center of the city.
However, Whittaker-Bermite continued a legal challenge of its groundwater-cleanup costs for years, with a federal appellate court upholding a nearly $66 million judgment against Whittaker in April 2024, despite the company’s argument that it wasn’t the area’s only polluter.
In September 2024, the city entered into a tentative agreement with New Urban West, which would let the property’s current owner develop approximately 6,500 homes, parks and other amenities at the site.
SCV Water’s court win also gave the agency the ability to seek additional funds if the scope of the contamination concern grew, which SCV Water expressed concerns about in a letter late last year.
“Contamination from the site continues to flow off-site, contaminating SCV Water’s drinking water wells,” Steve Cole, assistant general manager for SCV Water, wrote in December. “In its approval of this report, DTSC is explicitly agreeing to contamination remaining on-site in deep soils and in perched groundwater without being contained.”
Nearby uses
The quarterly contamination report comes as Hasa, a manufacturer of pool chemicals in the area since the 1960s, is eyeing an expansion of its operations.
The “improvements include a partial change of use from Manufacturing to ‘H-4’ Hazardous occupancy,” according to the plans submitted in May.
Jorge Estrada, operations manager for the Saugus plant, said Thursday he did not have the specific details of the project submitted to City Hall immediately available, but he said it was essentially more of the same operations the plant has been doing for decades. A Hasa official was not immediately available Thursday to discuss the need for the new designation in its proposed plans.
The HASA Saugus plant at 25750 Springbrook Ave. is looking at a planned expansion that would include a partial phased demolition of two one-story metal buildings, new industrial/warehouse tenant improvements, construction of new front and rear building truck wells and new exterior foundations for chemical storage tanks, according to City Hall records.
The Saugus facility has focused “on production, and distribution of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and muriatic acid (acid) solutions for water treatment,” according to the submission. “However, the current facility is outdated, prompting the decision to relocate the bottling operations to a new, state-of-the-art facility. This move aims to provide more space for growth, enhance operational efficiency, and improve safety. A long-term lease has already been secured for the new subject site, and we are seeking city approvals to construct the new bottling facility via proposed site modifications described herein.”
