Chevron to Pay Damages to McColl Dump Families
Chevron Corp. and one of its subsidiaries agreed Thursday to pay damages to 78 families who live near Fullerton’s McColl hazardous waste site, an attorney for the residents said.
It was the first settlement reached in any of a dozen lawsuits brought by residents who claim their health and property values have been damaged by the dump. The attorney, Jeffrey Matz, described the settlement as a “breaking of the ice, a significant step forward.”
The agreement with Chevron (formerly Standard Oil Co. of California) and its subsidiary, Chevron USA, will be subject to a Feb. 28 hearing in Orange County Superior Court, said Matz, attorney for about 130 McColl-area families involved in lawsuits still standing against other oil companies, land developers and government agencies.
Chevron did not produce any of the petroleum waste dumped at the site, had sold its property in the area nine years ago and was among the lesser defendants in the lawsuits, Matz said.
“But this is a major step forward in the resolution of the matter,” said Matz, who is negotiating with other defendants. “Many did not want to be first.”
Chevron agreed to pay the 78 families living in a development directly north of the dump site an undisclosed amount of money, which Matz described as “a significant sum, not trivial.”
Chevron had owned land north of Rosecrans Avenue and sold it in 1976 to a developer, Matz said. The McColl dump is opposite the development on the south side of the street. There were sumps containing unknown types of petroleum waste on the Chevron property, the attorney said. “They should have insisted that the sumps there should have been removed and taken away, but rather, they were plowed into the soil,” he said.
Residents in the development, known as the Meadows, have complained that their soil has pockets of stinking sludge. While state health officials have insisted it is not the same material found in the McColl dump, Matz said there have been conflicting claims and testing is needed.
Matz’s firm--Matz, Brody & Albert of Encino--also represents about 50 families in two developments south of Rosecrans. Those residents agreed to drop their lawsuits against Chevron because it was determined that the oil company had “no legal responsibility” for that property, Matz said.
Lawyers for Chevron could not be reached for comment.
The McColl site was created in the early 1940s when local refineries dumped acid wastes from the production of wartime aviation fuel into sumps operated by Eli McColl. Though rural at the time, the hilly area has since been developed with upper-middle-class homes that border the dump--now buried beneath a vacant field and a stretch of golf course--on three sides.
Residents in the area are suffering from respiratory problems, headaches and nausea from the dump’s fumes, which contain sulfur dioxide and benzene, state officials have said.
A $21.5-million excavation of the 200,000 tons of waste and contaminated dirt is expected to begin within weeks. The 15-month-long project, the largest excavation ever sponsored by the state Department of Health Services, is being financed largely by an unprecedented $19.35-million advance from the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites.
Matz said his clients still have lawsuits pending against six oil companies that the EPA has named as producers of the McColl waste, as well as against the housing developers, the golf course owner and the city, county and state.
In addition, about 30 more families south of the dump have filed lawsuits and are represented by other attorneys.
McColl-area residents have asserted that the oil companies created an unsafe environment by depositing the wastes. The developers misled the home buyers by not disclosing information about the dump, Matz said. The city, county and state are at fault for issuing permits for the building and not protecting the health of the residents, the attorney said.
