Casmalia Residents Settle Toxic Waste Lawsuit

Residents of Casmalia, who blamed a nearby toxic waste dump for health problems in their community, have settled a lawsuit they filed against the dump’s owner.

Ken Hunter Jr., owner of Casmalia Resources, agreed last week to pay about $10 million to the 320 plaintiffs in the case, sources said.

The exact amount could not be determined because Hunter demanded that the terms of the agreement remain confidential, said Richard Brenneman, a Santa Maria attorney who represented the residents.

Hunter and his attorney, Frederic Fudacz of Los Angeles, refused to comment on the settlement.

The suit was filed in 1985 by residents and workers in the small town 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, who claimed the dump caused a variety of health problems and reduced property values. Ten residents or former residents have died, seven others were found to have cancer or rare blood diseases and a number of miscarriages occurred, according to the lawsuit.

“No sum of money can ever make up for all the sickness and death caused by the dump,” said resident Nick Irmiter.

Some residents say the settlement was a vindication of their long-standing complaints about the dump, one of two designated toxic waste landfills in Southern California when the suit was filed. They complained about health problems for years, but Hunter called their problems “psychological,” and state and federal authorities refused to close the dump.

In 1989, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a $6.2-million fine against the dump’s owner--who is appealing the action--for accepting more waste than he was authorized to handle. The site could reopen, however, if Hunter’s applications to build modern landfills are approved by state and federal authorities.

But Irmiter said he is skeptical of safety pronouncements from government authorities. While Casmalia was considered “safe,” he said, his young daughter developed severe respiratory problems and his wife suffered neurological damage.

A 1986 county grand jury study found 90 compounds in Casmalia’s air that were on the EPA’s list of “priority pollutants.” Two years later, 72 doctors--more than half of all physicians practicing in the area--signed an advertisement in a local newspaper recommending immediate closure of the dump.

But the state Department of Health Services discounted the claims of health problems, concluding that the toxins in Casmalia’s air were at levels below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards for workplace exposure.

The Casmalia lawsuit is significant, Brenneman said, because it showed that small quantities of “a vast number of toxins can cause the same, if not worse, physical problems,” as large quantities of a single toxin.