Many residents who grew up in Fullerton in the 1970s and 1980s remember the McColl Superfund Site, where oil companies used to dispose of refinery waste. This was in the back of my mind as I was walking up the paved sidewalk portion of the Rosecrans Trail. On the opposite side of the street, at the southwest corner of the intersection of Sunny Ridge Drive and Rosecrans, I found a historic brown plaque sitting on a rock in a drought-resistant garden housed behind a fence within the Los Coyotes Country Club golf course. This historic marker memorialized the McColl Site and inspired me to dig deeper into the history of the location, while simultaneously leading me to a short hike on the Rosecrans Trail.

The “McColl Site” plaque on the corner of Sunny Ridge Drive and Rosecrans read “Completion of Construction – October 1997.” Inscribed into the plaque was the following: “Thanks to the diligent efforts of the residents and elected officials of Fullerton, the McColl Site Group, The California Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, this former waste site has been restored to a golf course. The work performed makes the site safe for public use and friendly to the environment.”

However, this land in the past has had a history of being used as a disposal area for environmentally hazardous material. According to EnviroStor, the State of California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)’s online data management system, the 22-acre area of land in question was formerly used as a refinery waste disposal facility in the 1940s and 1950s. More specifically, from 1942 to 1946, the area had petroleum waste that “seeped into the soil and groundwater, creating a hazard for the community,” according to the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website. Refinery waste was left in 12 unlined pits, or sumps, on the site.

The history section of the California DTSC webpage for McColl goes into further detail, stating that “it is estimated that approximately 97,100 cubic yards of contaminated material (72,600 cubic yards of solid waste and 24, 500 cubic yards of contaminated soil) is contained in the waste sumps,” which mostly consisted of “an acidic sludge waste generated during the refining process for high octane aviation fuel during the 1940s.” In the Fifties and Sixties, drilling mud was dumped over some of the sumps to control odors while the Los Coyotes Country Club golf course was being built.

According to the EnviroStor database, homes went up in the area in the late Sixties. In 1978, residents began to seriously complain about odors and health issues, which led to investigations by local, state and federal agencies that found that “the soil and groundwater on the site contained thiophene (THTs); sulfur dioxide, and various volatile organic compounds VOCs) including benzene.”

The EPA was then called in, and their original cleanup plan was “excavation and disposal of wastes at an approved disposal facility,” according to EnviroStor. A State court injunction stopped the contaminated soil from being transferred, which led to the EPA changing its cleanup plans for the soil two more times: once in 1989 and then again in 1993, according to the DTSC website.

My grandparents distinctly remember driving by the area at the time and seeing people in white hazmat suits at the site. In the 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency capped the sumps, walled them off from groundwater and lined drainage channels to contain the toxins, according to the federal webpage for “Cleanup Activities” at the McColl Superfund Site.

The former waste site “is now located entirely within the boundaries of the Los Coyotes Country Club. The portion of the golf course built over the site opened in 1998,” according to the DTSC. Essentially, the golf course was expanded to cover the closed area, but the EPA continues to review the safety of the site every five years.

Walking down Rosecrans today, you wouldn’t know that the golf course was formerly an oil waste disposal area unless you looked carefully to find the “McColl Site” plaque on an obscure rock in the country club’s drought resistant garden. The only reason I even noticed it was there was because of an out of place bench facing the golf course fence. The historic plaque on the rock can be seen through the bars of the fence. I noticed it while I was waiting for the stoplight to change and cross the street to hike on the Rosecrans trail, which is really popular among bicyclists.

On the opposite side of the street from Ralph B. Clark Regional Park, the 1.63 mile Rosecrans trail begins near Fullerton Fire Dept. Station #6 and follows Rosecrans Avenue, which its name derives from, before ending at West Coyote Hills Tree Park. It is a relatively flat paved pathway with an adjacent narrow dirt bike path next to it. Eucalyptus trees line the trail as it runs by Coyote Hills Park on the corner of N. Gilbert St. It continues downhill until it curves by an Azalea bush and some cacti and cuts between neighborhoods to reach Tree Park, where it transitions from one of the flatter trails in Fullerton to one of the steepest, making its way sharply uphill to reach Parks Road. In my opinion, this trail seems to largely be used as a way for bicyclists to travel between Tree Park and the Castlewood Trail.

So, the next time you’re riding down Rosecrans, and you’re stopped by the southwest corner of the intersection of Sunny Ridge Drive and Rosecrans, look for the plaque for the McColl Site Marker. To read the government’s full 68-page Five Year Review Report from 2022 for the McColl Superfund Site, visit the following link: 5th 5-year review rpt, w/appendices A-G or visit the Fullerton Public Library Local History Room to learn more about Fullerton’s former oil waste disposal area.