Following up on a well attended town hall style meeting in Oxnard last month, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency will give two more presentations this week concerning the cleanup at the Halaco Superfund hazardous waste site near Ormond Beach.

At the meetings of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors today and at the Port Hueneme City Council on Wednesday, officials from the EPA will give a rundown of the contamination at the site, its risks for residents and the process for how it may be cleaned up in the future.

The metals recycling plant, which operated at the South Oxnard facility for 40 years, shut its doors in 2004. In bankruptcy since then, the company began liquidating its assets last year.

Although there were complaints for decades about the air and water pollution coming from the plant, it wasn't until last year that the EPA stepped in.

In more than a year since taking over the 40-acre property, federal officials have spent more than $5 million sampling soils, water and air.

Along with an estimated 710,000 cubic yards of waste laden with a slew of heavy metals, federal scientists have also found trace levels of radioactive waste.

While officials have said the site does not present an immediate risk to neighboring residents, people have been warned to stay away from the property, which is now encircled by a fence and patrolled by guards.

Last month, the site was formally included in the list of Superfund hazardous waste sites, qualifying the site for federal money to help pay for the cleanup.

It also gives the federal government certain powers to go after the assets of those responsible for pollution to help cover the cleanup costs.

But as with many Superfund sites, the process could take years, officials said. The meetings this week are meant to explain the process, according to Jose Garcia, an EPA spokesman.

While the EPA is developing a long-term cleanup plan, the California Department of Public Health is doing an evaluation of the exposure and health concerns of the Halaco site.

Rubi Orozco, a health educator with the Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Investigation Branch, said the focus of the study is to understand the nature of the exposure to those who lived and worked in and around the Halaco plant.

The work by the Public Health officials has included face-to-face interviews and the collection of community health data.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors has scheduled the Halaco discussion for 1:30 p.m. today, while the Port Hueneme City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday.