Report Urges Firms Be Held Liable for Cleaning Stringfellow Acid Pits

A court-appointed official recommended Tuesday that 12 major companies--including General Electric, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop and Rockwell International--be held liable for toxic cleanup costs at the Stringfellow acid pits in Riverside County.

The 303-page report of recommendations issued in Los Angeles by former Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Harry V. Peetris is the first major legal action in the long battle to clean up the dump, located about 10 miles west of Riverside. Residents and some authorities have called the Stringfellow dump the worst toxic waste site in California.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and state authorities sued in 1984 for $40 million to recover cleanup costs from the owners and 31 companies that transported and dumped an estimated 34 million gallons of toxic wastes at the one-time rock quarry.

The question of damages to be assessed against the companies--many of which still contend that they are not responsible for the problems at Stringfellow--will be determined in a trial in Los Angeles federal court. A date for the trial has not been set but it is expected to begin next year.

“This is very significant because the (federal) court for the first time has allocated liability in this case,” said Joel Reynolds, a public interest lawyer representing many of the people who live near the acid pits.

May Spur Cleanup

“This hopefully will intensify the effort to see that the site is cleaned up quickly,” he said.

Attorneys for several of the companies accused of the illegal dumping, while saying privately that they were disappointed by Peetris’ report, declined to comment publicly late Tuesday.

Peetris was appointed a “special master” to hear preliminary legal questions in the case by U.S. District Judge James A. Ideman, who must ultimately preside over its outcome.

Ideman is free to accept, reject or modify Peetris’ recommendations. And the defendant companies can oppose them in arguments before Ideman, court officials said.

In his report, Peetris rejected arguments by the companies and the acid pits’ owners that the state of California--which licensed and initially encouraged the dumping of hazardous wastes at Stringfellow in the 1950s--should be liable for the cleanup costs.

Peetris recommended judgments of liability against Alumax, Inc., General Electric, McDonnell Douglas, NI Industries, General Steel & Wire, Montrose Chemical Corp., Northrop, Quemetco, Rheem, Rockwell International, Rohr and Stauffer. Liability was also recommended against the acid pits’ owners, Paul and Lucille Hubbs and J. B. Stringfellow Jr.

The dump, near the community of Glen Avon, was closed in 1972.