Countywide : Derailment Cleanup Expenses Are Paid

The Ventura County agencies that responded to a July train derailment and toxic spill in Seacliff have received full payment for their efforts, settling a months-long dispute over the expenses, officials said Tuesday.

The county received a check Monday for $578,556.30 from Southern Pacific Transportation Co. for work done to curtail toxic waste discharged during the July 28 spill, Assistant Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon said.

Included in the payment were funds for invoices filed by the county Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department, district attorney’s office and the environmental health division, Mahon said.

“What they have paid us just covers the allocation to date,” Mahon said. “If we came up with some work that we have to do in the future to recover from this, we can still collect from that too.”

The funds paid to Ventura County were part of a cleanup bill of more than $720,000. The costs were incurred when 12 cars jumped the tracks in Seacliff, northwest of Ventura, dumping eight 55-gallon drums of cancer-causing hydrazine.

The cities of Santa Barbara and Montecito, Los Angeles County, Kern County and the Carpinteria/Summerland Fire Protection District also received payment this week, said William Pohle, a senior Southern Pacific attorney in Los Angeles.

Officials in Ventura County and elsewhere have argued with Southern Pacific over the fair costs of the cleanup and conditions of the settlement.

Pohle said the 8 1/2-month payment period was reasonable. The claim “had to work its way through proper channels,” he said.