UCLA takes out last toxic transformer
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 23, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Photo Courtesy of UCLA Facilities Management Facilities
workers remove the 200th and final PCB transformer from outside the
James West Alumni Center last Saturday.
By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Contributor
The 200th and final electrical transformer containing the
hazardous chemical polychlorinated biphenyls was removed outside
the James West Center Jan. 20.
Following the Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous
waste research between 1989-91, the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services determined that PCBs may reasonably be anticipated
to be carcinogens. PCBs are a group of industrial chemicals used
primarily as coolants and electrical insulators.
“They say the smoke of PCBs, when on fire, is similar to
agent orange,” said Marty Kozdrey, Campus Facilities lead
electrician.
The 5-ton transformers were installed between 1930 and 1976, and
converted electricity from an extremely high voltage to an amount
suitable for campus use.
A 1977 federal law halted all production of PCB-related
products. The removal of all transformers that used the chemical in
their insulators began on UCLA’s campus in Oct. 1991.
The 11-year, $14 million project was prompted in response to PCB
research after health problems occurred two decades earlier in
Kyusho, Japan. Rice cookers in a factory excreted toxic levels of
the chemical in 1968. Workers reported skin lesions and irritations
as the electric steamer leaked PCB into the water and was
ingested.
There are two ways to dispose of PCB transformers: landfill or
incineration.
“If they were put in a landfill the university would be
perpetually liable if they were to leak anytime in the
future,” said Senior Superintendent Facilities Manager Bill
Serantoni.
Serantoni said he decided to completely deconstruct the PCB
transformers by incineration.
“When the transformers are incinerated the PCB is broken
down into it’s benign elements and then recycled. We
don’t have to be PCB-free by law but we decided to,” he
said.
UCLA had the most transformers of all UC campuses. UC Berkeley
uses oil-filled transformers because the majority of their growth
took place before the use of PCBs as insulators. UC Riverside
experienced much of its growth after federal law banned the
chemical.
Each transformer was replaced with a new, silicon-liquid
insulation system.
Under the wording of the 1977 legislation, companies that
produced PCB ““ such as General Electric and Westinghouse
““ could not be held liable for environmental damage caused by
chemical leakage. Instead, the responsibility would lie with the
owners of the transformers.
“Throughout the 10-year process only one transformer
showed indication of failure and was replaced before failure could
occur,” Serantoni said.
There was also a minor spill inside the transformer rooms in the
Life Science building in 1989.
“Normally the EPA comes to investigate when there’s
a PCB spill, but it was on the same day as the Exxon Valdez, so our
Environment Health Services had to take care of it,”
Serantoni said.
From 1929 to 1976, the production of PCBs in the U.S. was
approximately 725,000 tons. By 1976, 375,000 tons remained in
electric equipment. The remaining 250,000 tons entered the
environment in the following breakdown: 150,000 tons landfilled,
75,000 tons entered the air, water and soil, and 25,000 tons were
incinerated.
