Coastal Suit Settled for $42 Million : Environment: More than 150 cities and districts agree to help restore contaminated waters. Another $3.5 million will go to clean up former DDT-manufacturing site.

More than 150 cities and special districts throughout Southern California formally agreed Thursday to spend $42.2 million to restore coastal waters, settling the nation’s largest offshore chemical contamination case.

In addition, the municipalities and agencies will give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $3.5 million for cleanup work at a former DDT-manufacturing site that released the now-banned pesticide into coastal waters.

Under the settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the money could be used to remove or treat contaminated underwater sediments mainly off the Palos Verdes Peninsula or, if that proves too difficult, restore wildlife through such measures as restocking of fish.

“It shows that polluters, whether they are individuals, corporations or government agencies, must take responsibility for their actions,” said Acting U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Vicki A. O’Meara.

The allocation of payments under the settlement was not disclosed, but will be borne by cities and districts in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts will pay the most, including $8 million in services that could include such items as use of their laboratory data and their boat for sampling.

The sanitation districts and the city of Los Angeles, which also will pay part of the settlement, refused to reveal their total obligations.

A spokeswoman for the Orange County Sanitation Districts said the county’s districts, agencies and cities will pay a total of $450,000. Of that, $375,000 will be paid by the county’s sanitation districts.

The settlement stems from a suit filed in 1990 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Interior and three state agencies against Montrose Chemical Corp., a now-closed Torrance-based DDT manufacturer, and several companies that used PCBs, a toxic industrial chemical, which were released into Southern California waters.

The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts was also named because its sewer lines released the pollutants off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The companies later brought complaints against the districts and cities, contending that they also released toxics into the waters and should be held responsible for the pollution.

Litigation is continuing against the corporate defendants--Montrose Chemical, ICI American Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries, Rhone-Poulenc Basic Chemicals Inc., Chris-Craft Industries and Westinghouse Electric.

Gerald George, senior counsel for the Department of Justice, said the money will be distributed by federal and state government trustees. He said a decision on whether to clean up the pollution probably will be deferred until the litigation against the industries is completed.

Mark Gold, a staff scientist for Heal the Bay, said he was impressed with the amount of money the government was able to extract from the cities and special districts.

Lisa Weil, policy director for the American Oceans Campaign, said the money should be used to clean up Santa Monica Bay and “not just for administrative costs.”

Environmental activists have hoped that the settlement would induce the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts to provide complete treatment of all sewage, including nontoxic waste, before releasing it into coastal waters.

But sanitation officials said the releases improve the environment by burying the contamination from DDT and PCBs. The federal government has filed a separate lawsuit against the sanitation districts to force them to undertake more complete treatment. Some sewage now receives only partial treatment.

As a result of the releases, which began in the 1940s, an estimated 200 tons of DDT cover nearly 20 square miles of the sea floor in and around the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Fish have been so contaminated that state health officials have warned consumers not to eat certain varieties.