State’s Toxic-Waste Suit Settled

Safety-Kleen Corp. of Chicago, the world’s largest recycler of degreasing solvents, will pay $725,000 to settle a toxic-waste lawsuit, state officials said Monday.

The company’s alleged violations occurred from 1984 to 1989 at Safety-Kleen facilities in Los Alamitos, Santa Ana, Oakland, San Jose, Rohnert Park, Highland and Santa Clara.

The state charged that the company is responsible for ground-water and soil contamination, failure to install hazardous-waste leak detection systems, and operation of a toxic-waste storage area without a permit.

Health Director Kenneth Kizer and Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp said the settlement was announced as the suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court. Safety-Kleen made no admission of unlawful conduct under terms of the agreement.

The most serious violations of state toxic-waste laws were at the Oakland site, where underground tanks were allowed to overflow to release industrial solvents into the air, ground water and soil, officials said.

The company also did not contain its waste sufficiently and had disconnected the alarm system designed to indicate when underground storage tanks were full, investigators said.