Two engineering firms that designed two abandoned...

Two engineering firms that designed two abandoned Washington Public Power Supply System nuclear power plants settled out of court with plaintiff bond buyers suing them in the WPPSS security-fraud case. The cash settlement stemmed from the 1983 WPPSS default of $2.25 billion in municipal bonds used to build the plants, which were never finished. United Engineers & Constructors Inc., based in Philadelphia, will pay $14.8 million, and New York-based Ebasco Services Inc. will pay at least $7.2 million. Only Blyth Eastman Paine Webber Inc., the former WPPSS financial adviser, remains as a defendant in the class-action suit.