Accord Calls for Cities to Help Pay Landfill Cleanup

In an unusual case that pits a host of blue-chip corporations against 14 cities in Los Angeles County, the municipalities have tentatively agreed to contribute about $31 million to the cleanup of a Monterey Park landfill once considered one of the most toxic dumps in the country.

The settlement would climax a four-year legal battle between the corporations and 29 suburban cities over who was going to pay for the cleanup of the Operating Industries landfill. The landfill, with its 300-foot-high mountain of waste, was closed in 1984 and was placed on the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s list of Superfund sites.

Of the 14 cities, councils in Monterey Park, Alhambra, Rosemead, Cudahy, Montebello, South Gate, Maywood and Lynwood have agreed to the settlement. Councils in Temple City, South Pasadena and City of Commerce have yet to take action. Officials in Compton, San Gabriel and Bell could not be reached for comment.

If approved by the cities’ governing bodies, the money would be used to help finance cleanup efforts at the 190-acre dump where contaminants include such cancer-causing substances as vinyl chloride and trichloroethylene.

As part of the proposed settlement, several private waste hauling firms would also pay $10.4 million. In addition, Los Angeles County and two sanitation districts in Mesa Heights and Walnut Park have tentatively agreed to pay $62,400.

Estimates of the cleanup costs have ranged from $500 million to $650 million.

After the EPA sought to collect the money from a number of companies it accused of dumping millions of gallons of toxic materials, the companies tried to force the cities to pick up a share of the costs.

After agreeing to spend more than $200 million to help remedy problems at the dump, about 65 companies, including General Motors, Mobil, Exxon and Georgia-Pacific, sued the municipalities, arguing that they too were responsible for the pollution. Five of the 29 cities were dropped from the suit. Ten agreed to pay about $2 million in a partial settlement in 1992.

The remaining 14 cities contended that the suit was an attempt by corporate polluters to shift the cost of the cleanup to taxpayers. The cities argued that the household trash they contributed to the dump was not in the same category as the toxic waste deposited by industrial giants.

“They are saying the dirty diapers we threw away for years are as toxic as the hazardous liquids they dumped there for years,” Pat West, deputy city manager of Paramount, said when his city earlier agreed to join the settlement. But late last year in a key ruling in the case, U.S. District Judge William M. Byrne Jr. declared that the cities could be found liable for cleanup costs, said Timothy Gallagher, one of several lawyers who has been representing the cities.

That was enough to prompt his clients to try to reach a settlement, Gallagher said. “From that point on, the only issue left to be resolved was to establish how much each settling party allegedly disposed of at the site.” Gallagher pointed out that the EPA has estimated that the cleanup could cost $650 million and that the corporate plaintiffs were seeking $312 million in their lawsuit.

“All of the cities are ecstatic because we were able to settle the case for about $30 million when the potential liability was so much larger,” Gallagher said.

The proposed settlement is the largest resolution of a Superfund dispute in which the EPA was not directly involved, he said.

Gallagher said insurance firms had agreed to pay a substantial share of the settlement, although he would not say how much. He also said that the cities would be able to pay the balance of the contributions from their insurance reserve funds.

“What is most important about this case is the money is actually going to the cleanup of the landfill,” Gallagher said. “Usually, the money ends up being spent on litigation fees.”

Gallagher said that each of the waste haulers, cities and agencies listed in the agreement must approve it before it is final. He emphasized that the settlement was not an admission of guilt by the cities.

EPA officials explained why they had not attempted to collect from the cities.

They said a 1989 agency policy on Superfund sites holds that EPA will not go after municipalities unless their waste can be proved to have contained hazardous substances from an industrial process. That policy applies to trash haulers as well.

“But we have no evidence these cities sent hazardous waste there,” said Katherine Shine, an EPA attorney assigned to the landfill case. “And this is a site where we do have information on 4,000 waste generators.

“We have good evidence (the industries cited by the EPA) sent a lot of stuff to the site,” she said. “Some individual companies sent millions of gallons of hazardous waste to this landfill. At the top was Chevron, with 15 million gallons of various industrial wastes.”

But a lawyer for the companies said: “If there hadn’t been ample evidence that the cities dumped hazardous waste, the judge would never have ruled as he did,” referring to Byrne’s ruling that the cities were potentially liable. The Superfund law allows polluters identified by the EPA to try to broaden responsibility for cleanup costs.

The cities had “no choice but to settle,” said Monterey Park Mayor Marie Purvis, whose city has agreed to pay $4.6 million.

“Our city is responsible for a very small percentage of the hazardous waste in the landfill compared to the big conglomerates who put mounds of the stuff in there,” Purvis said.

South Gate City Manager Todd Agnow said his city had already spent nearly as much in legal fees as the estimated $700,000 it will have to pay for its share of the settlement after its insurer provides its portion.

The Alhambra City Council has agreed to provide $8.5 million.

“Our insurance companies are going to pay all but $2 million,” said Mayor Barbara Messina. “This goes back a long way, to when cities dumped garbage at the landfill. It was a time when no one dreamed household waste would be ranked as hazardous waste.”

Times environmental writer Frank Clifford contributed to this story.

Cleanup Costs

Fourteen cities in Los Angeles County have reached a tentative agreement with several corporations to pay about $32 million to help clean up the Operating Industries landfill in Monterey Park. Under the agreement, the cities would pay approximately these amounts: Alhambra: $8.5 million Bell: $415,000 Commerce: $395,000 Compton: $2.5 million Cudahy: $350,000 Lynwood: $1.6 million Maywood: $550,000 Montebello: $4.8 million Monterey Park: $4.6 million Rosemead: $947,000 San Gabriel: $2 million South Gate: $2.2 million South Pasadena: $641,000 Temple City: $1.9 million