$7-Million Award Due in McColl Dump Suit

An Orange County judge is expected to award $7 million to 702 residents living near the abandoned McColl hazardous waste dump this week in the latest round of legal action over the controversial toxic waste site in Fullerton.

The latest settlement, expected to be announced Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Jerrold S. Oliver, would bring to $24 million the amount awarded to residents and to the private Los Coyotes Country Club.

Oliver awarded about $3 million during mandatory settlement conferences last week, and confirmed that about $7 million will be awarded this week.

Since litigation began in 1981, other lawsuits by residents have led to a total of $14 million in settlements to 141 families. Residents have claimed they should have been told that living near the World War II-era toxic waste site was unsafe before they moved into their homes.

Suits Filed in 1986

Manuel Hidalgo, a Los Angeles attorney representing the homeowners, said he would not comment on the case until the issue is settled.

The second round of suits was filed in December, 1986, against developers, the dump owners, oil companies and city, county and state governments, claiming that residents have been subjected to an increased risk of cancer, respiratory disease and stillbirths.

The William Lyon Co., one of the neighborhood’s developers that paid $3.5 million three years ago, agreed to pay $2.25 million of the $3 million awarded last week, Oliver said. The rest will be paid by two oil companies and an environmental study company, he said.

Andra Greene, an attorney representing the William Lyon Co., would not comment on the case.

“Nothing’s been signed yet,” she said.

The latest McColl action arose after area homeowners who weren’t involved in the first round of settlements decided to pursue lawsuits.

There are more than 200 pieces of property involved in the latest action, known as McColl II, compared to about 140 in the first found of McColl settlements. There are more than 100 homeowners in the area who have yet to claim damages, according to court records.

“I hope there won’t be a McColl III,” Oliver said.

Dump Opened in 1940s

The McColl dump was opened in the 1940s as a repository for refinery wastes and oil drilling muds. It lies beneath a vacant field and part of a golf course at the Los Coyotes Country Club in northwest Fullerton and is bordered on three sides by homes.

Nancy Cohen, an attorney representing Arco, one of six oil companies that allegedly generated the acidic sludge waste, said the companies used the eight-acre site at a time when the dumping such wastes there was legal, and when it was “in the middle of nowhere.”

Settled in Principle

Two companies, Texaco and Arco, last week settled in principle for a combined $500,000, Cohen said.

Despite 10 years of hearings, reports, court orders and citizen protests, the site has yet to be permanently cleaned up.

The Environmental Protection Agency will decide next month whether an on-site incinerator can be built on the dump, one of California’s worst waste sites, said EPA spokesman Terry Wilson.

An incinerator is being tested in La Jolla. If successful, Wilson said, the procedure, which burns waste at 1,425 degrees, can be used at McColl. Preliminary reports indicate that the process works and that it meets air-quality standards, he said.

Burning the toxics on-site would take from four to seven years and would cost about $117 million, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Less Expensive Option

A less expensive option would be to entomb the waste with covers, but that would not remove toxics from the property. A third option would be to haul the waste to incinerators away from the site, but that would leave other neighborhoods susceptible to the waste. It would also cost up to $500 million.

“The price would be a bit inhibiting there,” Wilson said.

Oliver, 63, who retires Sept. 30 after an 18-year career as a Superior Court judge, said that distributing the settlement will be difficult because some plaintiffs live closer to the site than others. And determining payments is something few parties seem to agree upon.

“You have to look for trees and not let the forest confuse you,” he said.

No Comment on Suit

Betty Porras, who lives near the dump and leads the McColl Dump Action Group, would not comment on the litigation, but said living near the site has been difficult.

“It’s something you have to deal with everyday,” Porras said. “That’s not always easy.”

Other residents were quick to discuss the hazards of living near McColl.

“To say that we’ve been frustrated with the progress is a gross understatement,” said Harry Smith, an 11-year resident of Fairgreen Drive with a view of the toxic site. “They’ve literally spent millions of dollars and not a damn pound has left there.”