CHEAPER PLAN URGED TO CUT HAZARDS AT PITCHESS DUMP.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

Seeking to slash potentially prohibitive cleanup costs of toxic waste at the Pitchess Detention Center, sheriff's officials are proposing to leave the chemicals in the ground and instead reroute the drainage.

With estimates for removing the chemicals as high as $50 million, a department consultant has recommended a far cheaper alternative that calls for grading the canyon where the chemicals were buried to steer runoff water away from the toxic waste.

The plan, which has yet to be approved by state regulators, would cost just $2 million initially and an additional $1.4 million over 10 years to monitor the site, said Pitchess facilities administrator Roger Anderson.

``It would cost far less. This is not some big company's money we are talking about. This is taxpayers' money,'' said Anderson, who is managing the cleanup.

The chemicals - seized in drug lab raids and illegally dumped for several years starting in the late 1970s - include such hazardous substances as sodium cyanide, ethyl ether, benzene and toluene.

However, tests conducted since the dump was discovered in 1991 in a remote canyon at the east end of the 2,800-acre jail complex, show there has been little seepage of hazardous materials into groundwater, and what leakage has occurred remains far from drinking water supplies. The total migration was found to be less than a quarter-mile.

Anderson says these discoveries prove not only that it would be far cheaper, but also safer, to leave the chemicals in the ground while diverting the runoff and rainwater that have been causing the slow underground migration.

``Probably the danger to the workers excavating would be far greater than just leaving it there and watching,'' Anderson said.

The Sheriff's Department and its consultant, Montgomery Watson of Pasadena, will be meeting with regulators from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to present the plan for approval, Anderson said.

The plan also calls for installing an underground barrier to halt the migration of toxics already in the groundwater, and capping the dump the same way legal dumps are capped with clay.

The toxic chemicals have been dumped in more than 100, 12-foot-deep pits at the bottom of a very steep canyon. Reconfiguring the canyon walls to redirect runoff from the bottom would probably necessitate the grading of 150,000 cubic yards of earth, Anderson estimated.

That project would require an environmental review, he said. The plan also calls for returning the canyon to a nearly natural state by replanting the natural vegetation.

The plan was made public one day after the county's Chief Administrative Office released a report on the cleanup effort that had been requested by county supervisors disturbed by the length and cost of the cleanup.

The county already has spent nearly $1 million on the site since 1991, but no cleanup has begun. The report states that the effort has been proceeding according to law, but would not be concluded for several years.

The $3.4 million price tag for the cleanup plan is mentioned in the report, but no breakdown is provided.

The report also recommends that an agency other than the Los Angeles County Fire Department be responsible for future management of toxic waste cleanups for county agencies.

It warns of potential conflicts of interest, since the Fire Department advises county agencies about their cleanup plans.

The Fire Department has been overseeing the Pitchess cleanup for the water quality control board, but Anderson said he expects the matter to be turned over to the board, which must make the final decision on any cleanup plan.

Additionally, the report notes that the Sheriff's Department is negotiating with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency over its role in the dumping.