Firms Held Liable for Toxic Cleanup : Pollution: Judge rules that state and U.S. government should not pay for work at McColl dump site. Oil companies and landowner have not decided whether to appeal.

After years of fighting over who should pay for the cleanup of the McColl toxic dump site, a federal judge has ruled that four major oil companies and the property owner--not the federal or state government--are financially liable.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kelleher ruled in Los Angeles that the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California will be able to recover their past and future cleanup costs at the site. The total amount is still to be decided by the court.

To date, the state and the EPA have spent more than $25 million, with additional cleanup costs estimated at $80 million.

The ruling was hailed by EPA officials, who sued the oil companies and the owner of the dump site. McColl, which is among projects on the EPA’s Superfund cleanup list, is considered one of the nation’s most dangerous dumps.

“We’re elated over this decision,” said attorney Greg Ritter, who represented the EPA.

Residents, who have complained for years that the sludge emits a foul, rotten-egg smell and causes nausea, headaches and eye irritation, said Thursday that they are not concerned with who pays for the cleanup as long as it is done as quickly as possible.

The parties responsible for the cleanup are Shell Oil Co., Arco, Union Oil Co. of California, Texaco, and McAuley LCX Corp., which owns the land at Rosecrans Avenue and Sunny Ridge Drive.

Bill Duchie, a spokesman for the oil companies known collectively as the McColl Site Group, said the companies have not decided whether to appeal the decision.

“We believe the government should bear the majority or all of the costs,” he said. The site, a World War II-era refinery waste dump, was placed on the federal Superfund list in 1983. But cleanup plans have been tangled for years in bureaucratic, technical and legal problems.

In June, the oil companies began a two-year “pre-cleanup” study on the 22-acre site. The companies wanted to confirm the feasibility of the EPA’s proposed remedy for cleaning up the black, tar-like, toxic sludge, which has been oozing from the ground for 50 years.

The tentative cleanup plan calls for solidifying about 55,300 cubic yards of soft waste and capping it. The remaining waste, all farther underground, has solidified into a hard, coal-like material. All the sludge will be surrounded by underground walls.

In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Kelleher rejected the oil companies’ argument that the dumping was an “act of war,” which would have exempted them from liability under the Superfund law.

The judge faces conflicting arguments in determining how much money the oil companies and property owners are required to pay for the cleanup. The EPA contends that the McColl Site Group should pay for it all, while the group says that the government should be liable for some of the costs because federal officials allegedly were aware of the dumping and did not object to it.

The EPA estimates that the cleanup will take four to six years. When it is finished, the area could be used as a golf course or park, according to federal environmental officials.