WASHINGTON -- A decade after the Metales toxic waste dumpsite was shut down in Tijuana, U.S. officials are working on a tentative plan with Mexico to remove the most visible hazards within a year.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials said they expect as early as this summer to begin removing dozens of 55-gallon drums filled with lead wastes left at the former battery-recycling plant in the Chilpancingo neighborhood.

Mexican officials in 1994 closed the Metales y Derivados plant, which violated pollution standards set the by the North American Free Trade Agreement. At least 6,000 tons of lead debris and other contaminants remain at the site.

The company's owner, Jose Kahn, moved to San Diego from Mexico in 1995 after Mexican authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

Several years earlier, U.S. authorities had filed criminal charges against Kahn over pollution violations, but they allowed the now-88-year-old businessman to avoid incarceration because of his advanced age.

The abandoned plant continues to raise health and environmental concerns, because neighborhood children and other residents routinely walk near the site.

"We want to start getting rid of the immediate risk that people face at the site, walking around it. We're not cleaning it yet, but we want to stabilize the site, so people aren't affected in the area," said David Jones, associate director of the EPA's Southwest management division.

The EPA's Office of International Affairs proposes to pay contractors $50,000 to remove at least 50 drums and sacks filled with contaminants. But Jones said neither the United States nor Mexico has immediate plans to begin a long-term cleanup of the site, which could be years away.

"There is not enough money right now to remove the contamination, but we want to prevent the site from getting any worse," said EPA spokeswoman Laura Gentile in San Francisco.

New Frontier Trading Corp., the parent company of Metales, said it had sought financing from two government-financed border agencies to help in a cleanup. The company's plans were rejected, officials said.

Environmental officials will be considering many options for the longer-term cleanup, including the possibility of a concrete "cap" to seal the toxic wastes, Jones said.

A representative of San Diego's Environmental Health Coalition, a watchdog group, said local environmentalists want to participate in the decision-making process. Eventually, government officials said they expect community involvement in the review of cleanup plans.

"We want to make sure the cleanup plan is carried out in an appropriate manner and corresponds to what community residents have chosen," said Amelia Simpson, one of the coalition's leaders. "We don't want a sloppy cleanup that winds up five years down the road with people still getting poisoned."

Copyright 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Company. Used by Permission