U.S. Sues 8 Firms for Allegedly Polluting Southland Coastline

The federal government on Monday sued eight companies--including Westinghouse Electric, Chris-Craft Industries and Potlatch--for inflicting damage to marine wildlife and its habitat off the Southern California coast.

Chemicals released by the companies into the Los Angeles County sewer system--in some cases, as long as 40 years ago--ended up in coastal waters, the government alleged. The suits contend that the companies released the pesticide DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, during the manufacturing process. Scientists say both chemicals are highly toxic and cause birth defects to birds and marine life.

Los Angeles County sanitation districts have been notified that they may also be sued next April for damage to marine life for their alleged role in allowing pollutants into the ocean.

Government biologists cited tests showing that fish caught off Los Angeles carry “high levels” of the pollutants and that California sea lions and bottlenose dolphins have the highest concentrations of the chemicals in their fatty tissue of any marine life the agency has seen.

The case could have wide national implications. The government filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a little-used provision of the 1980 Superfund act that requires certain federal and state agencies to act as trustees in pursuing damages from companies that have been accused of despoiling publicly owned natural resources.

This is one of the few times that government regulators have attempted not only to require polluters to clean up their mess but also to pay for restoring damaged wildlife and natural habitat.

The lead agency in the suit is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the trustee for federal marine resources. Co-plaintiffs are the Interior Department, trustee for the brown pelican and other birds, and three California state agencies, which have trustee responsibility for such resources as Harbor Lake, a DDT-polluted shoreline body of fresh water near the Los Angeles port. The case was filed by the Justice Department.

Also named in the suits were Montrose Chemical Corp. of California, Stauffer Management Co., ICI American Holdings, Simpson Paper Co. and Atkemix Thirty-seven Inc. All eight companies currently operate, or once operated, in the Los Angeles Basin.

The government said tens of millions of dollars could be necessary to fund restoration efforts, including removal and treatment of underwater deposits of the pollutants, restocking of fish or the creation of artificial reefs.

The presence of damaging chemicals in marine life raises the difficult question of how much animal life and its habitat is worth.

“How do you assess the cost of such damage?” Karl S. Lytz, an attorney in the San Diego office of Latham & Watkins, which is representing the Montrose Chemical Corp. of California, asked Monday. “We’ll certainly be facing a lot of novel questions.”

“And I think there is potential for this type of law to be extremely inequitable,” Lytz continued. He objected to “a very select number of companies” being held responsible for “a very broad spectrum” of pollution damage.

“The sewer system served far more than just industrial dischargers,” he noted.

Some companies earlier named as possible lawsuit targets, including Benjamin Moore & Co. and several small companies that clean 55-gallon drums for chemical storage, were dropped from the case because NOAA found insufficient evidence against them, government officials said.

“(NOAA) is frankly to be commended for not including us,” said Charles C. Ivie, an attorney of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, representing Benjamin Moore. “They appeared to approach the matter in good faith.”

Environmentalists interviewed Monday were generally pleased to see the natural-resource damage provisions of the Superfund law put to use.

“I hope it is a turning point,” said Sarah Chasis, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council with long experience in coastal pollution issues. “Whether it starts a trend elsewhere in the country remains to be seen. But it certainly represents a shift from the total lack of action by the Reagan Administration.”

NEXT STEP

Late this summer or early fall, the agencies bringing suit against the companies accused of the marine pollution will issue their final damage-assessment plan. The plan will detail the methods to be used to survey the injuries to natural resources and to establish the cost of restoring them to normal condition. This will be in preparation for a settlement or a court trial sometime in the next few years.