121 McColl Families Awarded $1 Million by 6 Oil Companies

Six oil companies have agreed to pay $1 million to 121 families living near the McColl hazardous waste site in Fullerton, an attorney said Wednesday.

The settlement is the second to be reached in the flurry of civil suits against petroleum companies blamed for dumping toxic refinery wastes at the landfill during World War II.

6 Companies Named

Jeffrey A. Matz of Encino, representing more than 100 families who claimed in a dozen lawsuits that their health and property values have suffered because of the dump, said the settlement was offered by Aminoil, Atlantic Richfield, Getty, Shell, Texaco and Union.

“This settlement offer is a reasonable good-faith effort on the part of the oil companies to avoid a long and protracted legal dispute,” Matz said, adding that the offer is not an admission of liability by the companies.

Larry Gutterridgy, legal counsel for Atlantic Richfield, confirmed that the six oil companies had made the “joint offer” to settle the lawsuit.

Last January, 78 families living in the Meadows neighborhood just north of the McColl site settled a similar lawsuit with Chevron for $400,000. The six companies that settled this week had been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the producers of the waste in the 1940s.

Matz said the 121 families involved in the latest settlement live at the Meadows and in two other nearby subdivisions--the Island, just south of the dump site, and Fullerton Crest, to the east along Rosecrans Avenue.

The suits against the oil companies by the residents are unrelated to efforts by state Department of Health Services officials to move the waste to another landfill in the state. The agency has been attempting for more than a year to excavate 200,000 tons of waste and contaminated dirt from McColl but has been stymied by a series of legal challenges.

Residents in Santa Barbara and Kern counties in recent months have blocked plans to truck the excavated waste to landfills in their areas. In the latest development, a Superior Court judge on May 31 ordered state officials to develop an environmental impact report (EIR) before trucking any waste from the McColl site to a landfill near Buttonwillow in Kern County.

18-Month Delay Seen

State officials, who must now decide whether to appeal the decision or proceed with the EIR, say that either process will take at least 18 months.

On Wednesday, however, a proposal by Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) aimed at expediting the cleanup cleared a congressional committee.

Dannemeyer’s proposal would preempt further state and local challenges to the transfer of the McColl waste to Buttonwillow or to another disposal site in the state on the ground that officials had already received a federal permit to transfer the waste before Kern County residents blocked the move. The measure is expected to reach the House floor in September.

“If this amendment becomes law, it will give the state Department of Health Services a legal basis to go back into court and seek to have the court order lifted, thus permitting the cleanup to go forward,” Dannemeyer said in a statement from Washington.

Matz, one of several attorneys representing about 130 families living near the McColl site, said that this week’s settlement with the six oil companies would allow his clients to “build up a war chest” for nine other lawsuits they have pending against the City of Fullerton and the two developers--William Lyon Co. and J.F. Shea Co.--that built the houses near the dump site.

Blames City, Developers

The attorney contended that the city and the two developers had knowledge of the dump site but failed to inform prospective home buyers.

“They are the chief bad actors (in this case) because they had full knowledge and still went ahead and built those houses . . . and sold them at less than market value to attract buyers,” Matz said. “Those are the people who are the most responsible.”

He said the pending lawsuits should reach court next year and could take one to two years to decide.

In their lawsuits, the residents in the area claim that they are suffering from respiratory problems, headaches and nausea from the dump’s fumes, which contain sulfur dioxide and benzene.

Matz said state health officials are studying the possibility of abandoning plans to remove the McColl waste to another site and are trying to determine if an “on-site solution” is feasible.

“If that happens, my clients’ lawsuits will substantially increase in value,” the attorney warned.

Foresees Another Study

But Michael J. Golden, a senior waste management engineer with the toxics division of the Department of Health Services, said alternatives for the McColl waste project still have to be studied.

“We’re not sure what will happen with the project,” he said. “We’re going to go back and look at the alternatives. EPA is going to assist us in a review of the alternatives.”

Golden also said that the fate of Dannemeyer’s measure in Congress would have an impact on any future decision.

“If it did (pass), that would definitely affect our decision,” Golden said. “Then we’d be back on track again with the same plan as before (to remove the McColl waste and transport it to Kern County).”

Times Staff Writer Kristina Lindgren contributed to this story.