Lockheed OKs $70-Million Settlement

In a payout to residents who claimed health and other problems, the Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to $60 million in cash settlements for nearly 1,300 neighbors of its former military airplane manufacturing plant, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Residents near the plant blamed an array of ailments, including cancer, on chemicals that had seeped into the soil and water during the 63 years the company built aircraft at the site near Burbank Airport. Some residents also contended the chemical contamination caused their property values to decline.

The individual cash settlements, which are expected to be sent out within the next two weeks, range from $2,500 to $300,000. Some of the highest payments will go to surviving family members whose relatives died, said the source, who did not wish to be identified.

Up to $10 million in additional funds will be paid by the company for long-term medical monitoring and insurance protection of some residents, the source said.

Lockheed officials would not confirm the terms of the settlement, which was reached after more than a year of negotiations and without a lawsuit being filed. “All I can say is I can confirm we have reached a settlement,” said Susan Pearce, a Lockheed spokeswoman.

“I cannot address any of the details because we have a confidentiality agreement on all of the elements.”

The company issued a short statement Sunday that said, “Lockheed always maintained that its operations in Burbank pose no risk to the community now or in the time we were in operation.”

Burbank Mayor Bill Wiggins said Sunday that neither he nor City Manager Robert R. Ovrom knew anything about the settlement. The ongoing dispute was handled quietly by Lockheed and the lawyers representing residents in the area, Wiggins said.

“Once you get into legal discussions, then it’s all private,” Wiggins said, adding that he hopes everyone can move on from the dispute.

Attorney David Casselman, who represents the residents, said Sunday the agreement was signed more than a month ago.

Maureen Curow, another Lockheed spokeswoman, said Sunday the 103-acre property is on the market.

In order to restore the environmental integrity of the site, Lockheed plans to build a $13.7-million vapor extraction system. This system of wells, pipes and charcoal filters is designed to treat potentially cancer-causing substances in the soil and pump those treated vapors into the air.

Construction on the system should begin next month, said Curow. Once operational, it is expected the vapor extraction system will take 8 1/2 years to completely clean the soil.

The chemicals found in the soil include carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and methylene chloride.

The site is already part of a much larger Superfund cleanup project to treat ground water contaminated for decades primarily by Lockheed and to a lesser extent other industries.

Lockheed, which built such well-known aircraft as the B-1 bomber and the U-2 spy plane on the site, set up operations there in the 1920s. The company began moving away from the plant in the 1980s, completely vacating it in the summer of 1994, Curow said.

About 12,000 company employees who once worked there were transferred to Lockheed manufacturing plants in Palmdale or Georgia.

Times staff writers Efrain Hernandez and Julie Tamaki contributed to this story.

* PALMDALE PROJECT: Computer-controlled launch vehicles. B1