Stringfellow Acid Pits (Jurupa Valley, California)

USA / California / Glen Avon / Jurupa Valley, California
 EPA superfund  Add category
Now abandoned but a continuing source of groundwater contamination.
It is an EPA superfund site.
The Acid Pits, also known as the Stringfellow Quarry Waste Pits, are located on a 20-acre (8-ha) site in Pyrite Canyon above Glen Avon. In the mid-1950's, a number of high-tech companies began to dump their hazardous wastes into the canyon. No special precautions were taken in the dumping process; as one observer noted, the companies got rid of their wastes just as cavemen did: "They dug a hole and dumped it in."

Over the next two decades, more than 34 million gallons (129 million L) of waste were disposed of in a series of panshaped reservoirs dug into the canyon floor. The wastes came from more than a dozen of the nation's most prominent companies, including McDonnell-Douglas, Montrose Chemical, General Electric, Hughes Aircraft, Sunkist Growers, Philco-Ford, Northrop, and Rockwell-International. The wastes consisted of a complex mixture of more than 200 hazardous chemicals. These included hydrochloric, sulfuric, and nitric acids; sodium hydroxide; trichlorethylene and methylene chloride; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); a variety of pesticides; volatile organic compounds (VOCs); and heavy metals such as lead, nickel, cadmium, chromium, and manganese.

By 1972, residents of Glen Avon had begun to complain about health effects caused by the wastes in the Stringfellow Pits. They claimed that some chemicals were evaporating and polluting the town's air, while other chemicals were leaching out of the dump and contaminating the town's drinking-water supply. People attributed health problems to chemicals escaping from the dump; these problems ranged from nose bleeds, emotional distress, and insomnia to cancer and genetic defects. Medical studies were unable to confirm these complaints, but residents continued to insist that these problems did exist.

In November 1972, James Stringfellow, owner of the pits, announced that he was shutting them down. However, his decision did not solve the problem of what to do with the wastes still in the pit. Stringfellow claimed his company was without assets, and the state of California had to take over responsibility for maintaining the site.

The situation at Stringfellow continued to deteriorate under state management.
During a March 1978 rainstorm, the pits became so badly flooded that officials doubted the ability of the existing dams to hold back more than 8 million gallons (30.3 million L) of wastes. To prevent a possible disaster, they released nearly 1 million gal (3,785 million L) of liquid wastes into flood control channels running through Glen Avon. Children in nearby schools and neighborhoods, not knowing what the brown water contained, waded and played in the toxic wastes.

When the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund) was passed in 1980, the Stringfellow Pits were named the most polluted waste site in California. The pits became one of first targets for remediation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but this effort collapsed in the wake of a scandal that rocked both the EPA and the Reagan administration in 1983. EPA administrators Rita Lavelle and Anne McGill Burford were found guilty of mishandling the Superfund program, and were forced to resign from office along with 22 other officials.

During the early 1990's, citizens of Glen Avon finally began to experience some success in their battle to clean up the pits. The EPA had finally begun its remediation efforts in earnest, and residents won judgments of more then $34 million against Stringfellow and four companies that had used the site. In 1993, residents initiated the largest single civil suit over toxic wastes in history. The suit involved 4,000 plaintiffs from Glen Avon and 13 defendants, including the state of California, Riverside County, and a number of major companies.

www.ccaej.org/2006/Issues/Stringfellow/Museum/acid.html
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Empire_(California)#Water_pollution
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°1'24"N   117°27'38"W

Comments

  • Interesting. I once "dated" a girl who lived just to the south, across the freeway. I wonder if she was toxic?
  • Was my dad he had a 2 hand furniture and applance store in bellgardens Ca in the 1950s and the 1960s befor him was my uncle Berty Stringfelow who had the same store proyer i think he had a son named James how far would this have to bellgardens,and is there any kin ship between James and Berty Stringfellow if so James is liveing in HebberSprings Ar Where He builds the type of car the rus on world famus boniville utito salt flats
  • After much research I still could not find anything on "the old army base" looks like a gov cover up I seen one post saying it could of been a rocketdyne site other says Universal Propulsion Company both could of been dumping perchlorate or contaminating soil during tests I think it was a DoD site but they deny it. I think they where doing something they did not want anyone to find about after realizing they had been contaminating soil they up and left and string fellow site took headlines as they just dissapeared
  • Don't you have some chemtrails to film, Chris? Research is clearly too much for you to handle.
  • I used to live in the area. If I recall correctly, it was further south along the Santa Ana riverbed and Van Buren Blvd. it was a WWII staging area and not an 'army base' per se.
  • the facility in pyrite canyon further back from the acid pits was a land mine factory, thats where the concrete pads are located near south ridge in fontana, as for the smoke stack looking thing, thats a vent pipe for an underground aquaduct that runs from lake mathews, through those hills into fontana and then to LA, same vent pipes in indian hills, you can see the pipe cross the santa ana river near the train bridge.
  • my name is tim durette i lived at 3812 pyrite st from 1971 to1974 as resolt i got cancer hodjkins my family lived the closest tothe site. when it went to trial i was chocked untel i pased out and given restraining order.then charged with murder by villa shurman.she was being suied in the stringfellow case and on the water bord ishued permit.
  • my name is tim durette i lived at 3812 pyrite st my family lived the closest to the dump site.my well was contaminated from the illegal dumping . thanks to congressman paul brown and the union pacific rr .and a geoligist named mr fox .the state of ca was still dumping until 1979,dr frankes wrote a report to the state in 1973 stating toxic waist was leaching out thru conglomereate fractures in there dam.
  • I hope she burns in hell
  • Berty Stringfellow was my Grandfather on my dad's side.
  • What was on the other side of the hill northwest of acid pit. There is a huge smoke stack and many large concrete foundations but I can find no info about what was there.I saw one post where someone said it was a rocketdyne testing facility. But there is no official info I can find. I believe it might be the source of the perchlorate contamination that's still contaminating ground water in area perhaps they where dumping area near acid pit they may not of wanted to use string fellows site do to the secret nature of there projects.
  • Funny, I always wonder the same thing. When we were growing up everyone called it "the old army base". I am not sure where it originated from. Those concrete structures looks like there were entryways that are cemented off.
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This article was last modified 15 years ago