Cleanup of Dump Site Pushed by Residents : Toxic waste: Settlement of lawsuits by McColl dump litigants should clear the decks for agreement on a means of neutralizing the danger.

Pending settlement of lawsuits filed by homeowners who live near the McColl toxic waste dump in northwest Fullerton will allow residents to focus on getting the tons of waste finally removed or entombed at the site, one homeowner said Thursday.

A group of developers, oil companies, former insurers for the city of Fullerton and others have agreed to pay about $10 million to settle lawsuits filed by 197 families living around the closed McColl dump, court records show.

Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour approved two settlements for about $3 million this month and will hear arguments on other settlement offers next month.

The settlements will close the second round of lawsuits filed by residents over the McColl site. Settlement of a first round of suits in 1986 paid about $12 million to those residents.

With the suits in the final settlement stages, residents hope that they can concentrate on pushing oil companies and the Environmental Protection Agency to come up with a permanent solution, said David Bushey, a computer system designer whose house sits about 30 feet from the dump.

Bushey and others have organized a community meeting Thursday night to hear a proposed solution offered by a group of five oil companies that federal authorities hold responsible for producing the World War II-era wastes.

The companies want to seal the 150,000 tons of waste underground, while the Environmental Protection Agency wants to dig it up and burn it on the site.

The EPA plans to spend three weeks in June digging up a portion of the toxic sludge from McColl to test the on-site incineration proposal, EPA spokeswoman Virginia Donohue said Thursday.

Workers will dig up about 15 tons of the waste each day while enclosed under a three-story-high white tent, she said. The tent will minimize the possible drift of noxious fumes and dust into surrounding neighborhoods.

The waste will be smashed into tiny, burnable particles while monitors test the air for the presence of harmful gases.

While stopping short of burning the waste, the test will help show the feasibility of incineration, she said.

Bushey said the community meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Parks Junior High School, will allow the oil companies to defend their position--that sealing the wastes underground at McColl is the best solution.

The oil companies have agreed to pay the costs of sealing the wastes and monitoring the site for any wastes leaking into the air or ground water but have balked at the EPA’s request to pay for incinerating the wastes.