An EPA probe for toxins on National Technical Systems’ Santa Clarita property has been delayed by legal wrangling and will probably not occur until July, a federal investigator said…

    “We have been trying to get on NTS since January, officially,” said Matt Mitguard, site assessment manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We were kind of going through a series of back and forth, but we’re making a lot of progress (now).”
    But that progress didn’t come until the EPA, which has the right to issue a search warrant, negotiated for access through one of its regional attorneys with NTS’s attorney, Mitguard said. A search warrant was not served, but NTS was reminded that it could be, the investigator said.
    The federal investigators finally won a “site walkthrough” for May 14 but won’t do the actual soil and groundwater testing until some time in July, said Mitguard, who had expressed hope in late March that the testing would be done in short order.
    “Summer is not an ideal time” for the type of testing that’s called for, Mitguard said. Not only do high summertime temperatures make the job difficult, but groundwater levels tend to be lower.
    “You have to drive rods 30 or 40 feet down before you hit groundwater,” Mitguard said. “You have to subcontract somebody to come on board.”
    The EPA will be testing both soil and groundwater for the presence of perchlorate, heavy metals and volatile organic compounds as a follow-up to results from a test done by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control that showed 320 parts per billion (ppb) of perchlorate in soil tested on the NTS property.

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