Firms, Agencies to Pay for Dump Cleanup : Superfund: The settlement, which may total as much as $150 million, is the largest of its kind in the program.

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency officials announced Tuesday that they had reached a settlement with 178 companies and governmental agencies, which agreed to pay $130 million to $150 million in cleanup costs at a former landfill in Monterey Park.

The agreement, filed Tuesday in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, represents the largest settlement of its kind in the history of the federal Superfund program, said Jeff Zelikson, EPA regional administrator for hazardous waste.

“This merits a big A-1 as a success story,” said Ted N. Rauh, acting deputy director of the California Environmental Protection Agency, who was at the Los Angeles news conference when the announcement was made.

As much as 300 million gallons of hazardous waste, including cooking oils, paint, petroleum products and printing ink, were dumped at the landfill by as many as 4,000 companies beginning in the early 1950s, federal officials say.

The 178 companies and governmental agencies were held responsible because they had trucked hazardous waste to the landfill, sandwiched between Monterey Park and Montebello. The dump, run by Operating Industries Inc., was shut down in 1984 after several years of complaints from nearby residents about odors. The dump also drew heavy criticism from public officials and the threat of $1,000-a-day fines from state health and air quality officials.

By then, the 190-acre dump had become a malodorous mountain of garbage that rose 150 to 200 feet above ground level.

In 1986, it was selected for inclusion on the federal Superfund program, which was set up to solve the country’s most severe environmental problems. EPA Regional Administrator Daniel McGovern has called the Monterey Park landfill “one of the most complex and contaminated sites in the nation.”

The companies in the settlement include some of the nation’s biggest: Chevron, Exxon, McDonnell Douglas, Xerox, Mobil and Times Mirror Co., parent company of the Los Angeles Times.

Agencies included the city of Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood and the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

All of the parties, Zelikson said, were involved in one or both of two earlier settlements, which in 1989 and in September, 1991, resulted either in cash or commitments to pay for cleanup costs totaling $74 million.

The new agreement will help pay for a cover on the landfill and a system to collect gases that form in the decaying garbage. Already a plant is under construction to collect and treat liquids generated at the dump, including carcinogens such as vinyl chloride.

In an earlier agreement, about 60 of the 178 firms and agencies formed a company that is undertaking the cleanup and is overseen by federal environmental officials.

“We are very satisfied with the settlement,” said Gordon Turl, a spokesman for the coalition of companies.

The recent negotiations were not easy for some companies, Zelikson said, noting that “it is a bitter pill for many of them to swallow.” But, he said, the agreement ensures that “the citizens don’t pay” for the cleanup.

No immediate health hazard is posed to the surrounding communities of Monterey Park and Montebello, he said.