Suit Seeks to Recover Costs of Toxic Cleanup
A West Los Angeles developer who is building on the site of a former Venice gas station filed suit Thursday to recover hazardous waste cleanup costs from those who operated the land during the last 50 years.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, developer David Botfeld seeks $100,000 for the costs he incurred cleaning up the site on the southeast corner of Venice Boulevard and Main Street and $150,000 for the “nuisance” of the cleanup.
Botfeld’s attorney, W. Herbert Young, said Botfeld is building an office complex on the site.
Botfeld said in the suit that the previous owners and operators of the site allowed gas to leak from underground piping and storage tanks and permitted the disposal of other chemicals on site, including benzene, toluene, xylene isomers and fuel hydrocarbons.
Listed as defendants in the suit are Unocal Corp. and Union Oil Co., which allegedly operated the site as a gas station from October, 1930, until 1968; Harbor Service Stations, which Botfeld said ran the station until 1972, and several couples who operated the gas station until 1980.
None of the defendants could be reached for comment.
After 1980, Botfeld said, the site was sold for private development. Botfeld is now the sole partner in that endeavor, his suit said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
