Neighborhood group hears update on decades-old toxic plume at former Pneumo Abex site

Doug Talber, chair of the Via Marina neighborhood council, told the INCO General Membership on March 5 that contamination tied to the former Pneumo Abex facility at 3151 West Fifth Street has left a groundwater plume and intermittent soil‑vapor readings in the adjacent Seaview Estates neighborhood.

The presentation summarized decades of investigations and remediation overseen by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. Talber said monitoring has identified a groundwater plume roughly 3,300 feet in length and that the board issued a cleanup and abatement order in February 1995. He described repeated rounds of cleanup that removed about 11,000 cubic yards of impacted soil, pumped and treated “millions of gallons” of groundwater and used injections of a hydrogen‑release compound to accelerate breakdown of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE).

Why it matters: Neighborhood chairs said the plume and soil‑vapor detections raise concerns about indoor air and long‑term exposure near homes and a nearby elementary school. Talber and others urged faster progress toward indoor testing…