San Gabriel Valley : Firms Agree to Pay $18.7 Million Toward Cleanup of Waste Dump

Thirty companies agreed Wednesday to pay $18.7 million to help tackle contamination at a Monterey Park landfill, bringing to more than $286 million the amount dedicated to the cleanup of one of the nation’s worst hazardous waste dumps.

The settlement announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice is the fifth reached with corporations and public entities after a decade of litigation over who is responsible for the 190-acre Operating Industries Inc. Landfill.

Under the consent decree filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the companies, which used the landfill until it closed in 1984 after 36 years of operation, would be freed of future liability.

In 1986, the EPA placed the 300-foot-tall mountain of waste on the Superfund list. A site is added to the list when it is considered to be a long-term threat to public health. Hundreds of companies, waste haulers, 24 cities, the county and Caltrans have already given the EPA money for the cleanup that could ultimately cost $650 million, officials said.

While most of the 170 companies that dumped in the landfill have anted up money, EPA officials said they are continuing to pursue others.