$1.7 Million in Tests Planned for Area Beset by Toxics : Environment: The EPA will scrutinize the soil, water and air along West 204th Street, which is near two former industrial sites where contamination was found.

The federal government has unveiled a $1.7-million plan to test soil, household air and tap water in a neighborhood near Torrance that is wracked by fears of pollution from two toxic-waste sites.

Workers will begin today boring out soil samples along West 204th Street where some yards are known to contain fill tainted with chunks of the banned pesticide DDT.

The neighborhood of modest homes and duplexes is flanked by two toxic chemical sites.

To the northwest is the former Montrose Chemical Corp., once a major DDT manufacturer and now a federal Superfund site. And to the north is a proposed Superfund site, the Del Amo Study Area, which was once home to a synthetic rubber factory operated by Shell Oil Co. and the Dow Chemical Co., among others.

The soil results, due back in about six weeks, will help U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials decide whether to permanently relocate families found to be living atop or near DDT-laced soil.

As teams of experts probe their neighborhood, 33 families wait in nearby hotels, where they have lived since April at federal expense. Many of them have called on the government to move them to new homes, but the EPA’s four-state regional office has only once permanently moved families living near a Superfund site. The area is one of 1,200 toxic-waste sites nationwide considered the most hazardous.

Knowing what chemicals may permeate the fill soil is “critical to the analysis of permanent relocation,” said John Blevins, the EPA section chief overseeing the testing.

The EPA will study the extent of DDT contamination by employing a machine called a “geoprobe” to take soil samples from as far as 15 feet below the surface. The soil also will be tested for contaminants from the nearby Del Amo toxic-chemical site.

Federal officials plan to monitor air inside the homes of the families that have been relocated, looking for benzene--a known Del Amo contaminant--and other chemicals. They will also test tap water to assure it is not contaminated.

Finally, tests are scheduled to determine if such chemicals as benzene, naphthalene and hydrogen sulfide are escaping into the air over waste pits in the Del Amo area, directly north of homes along West 204th Street.

Most testing will be done this summer and fall, while residents remain in temporary housing.

One of those residents, community leader Cynthia Babich, questions whether the planned testing is thorough enough.

“I really feel it falls short of what we were proposing,” said Babich, who had asked for a longer study. “Since they’re sinking all this money into it, it should be the most primo testing they’ve done.”

The focus of the testing will be West 204th Street from Budlong Avenue to Catalina Street, in an unincorporated Los Angeles County area east of Torrance.

Residents’ concerns were ignited this spring with the discovery of large amounts of DDT in two back yards on the north side of West 204th. After the yard cleanup, the EPA announced last week it believes the DDT came from Montrose and is ordering the firm to handle the $2-million disposal of contaminated dirt. Lawyers for the agency and Montrose were to confer this week about the order.

The price tag for testing: $300,000 for fill-soil tests, $600,000 to study indoor air, $200,000 to monitor tap water and $600,000 for the waste-pit air testing.

The government may ask Shell and Dow to conduct the waste-pit tests, Blevins said.

Tomi Van de Brooke, spokeswoman for Shell and Dow, said Tuesday that the companies have offered to do the work and are talking to the EPA about procedures. “We believe the work plan needs to be drafted so that it is conclusive about what is and isn’t coming from the pits,” said Van de Brooke, adding that 1984 tests at the pits did not show chemicals beyond normal background range.

The EPA will have its geoprobe soil-testing machine on public display at 2 p.m. today at 1055 W. 204th Street. Also today, some residents plan a neighborhood march that Babich describes as a show of unity addressed to Montrose, Shell and Dow.

Said Babich: “I want them to know off the bat, if they don’t know already, that we’re a strong, organized community.”