CBS Agrees to Pay $9.5 Million to Settle Claim Over PCBs
CBS Corp. has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle government claims of ecological damage to Southern California’s sea life caused by the discharge of toxic PCBs into the ocean off Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The funds from the media conglomerate--part of which is the former Westinghouse Electric Co.--will be used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state agencies to help restore the polluted marine environment.
The settlement ends CBS’ involvement in the nation’s largest lawsuit seeking damages for harm to natural resources. However, the bulk of the massive, 8-year-old case remains, targeting Montrose Chemical Co.--the now-defunct manufacturer of the pesticide DDT--and five other businesses.
For decades, the nation’s largest deposit of DDT and PCBs--estimated at 100 tons--has been sprawled across the Palos Verdes shelf, at the site where Los Angeles County’s sewage pipeline discharges into the ocean.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were released into the county’s sewers by numerous electric companies and other industries for several decades. Widely used as insulating material in electrical transformers, the compounds were banned in 1971 because they collect in fish and birds, causing severe birth defects and cancerous tumors.
Westinghouse operated a now-closed plant in Compton that cleaned transformers containing PCBs. But the company in court has long disputed the government’s allegations of discharge into the sewers, saying any release was negligible.
An attorney for CBS declined to comment Tuesday on the settlement.
Federal and state environmental agencies, represented by the U.S. Department of Justice and the California attorney general, are seeking an estimated $250 million from the companies and municipalities in the case. Los Angeles County and 150 municipalities that use the county sewage system have already paid $45.7 million, and Simpson Paper Co. and Potlatch Corp. have paid $12 million.
The public has been warned for years not to eat white croaker and other fish caught off Palos Verdes, because the PCBs in them pose a risk of cancer and reproductive damage. People, however, especially in the region’s Asian communities, continue to eat the fish. PCBs also have been widely found in marine mammals, including dolphins and seals, off Southern California.
In the settlement document, government officials acknowledged overestimating--because of possible errors in county records--the amount of PCBs that came from the Westinghouse plant. The original estimate was 38,000 pounds. But the officials maintain that the company played a role in creating the deposit, even though the volume is disputed.
Most of the ecological harm from the undersea deposits comes from the DDT, not the PCBs, so the funds paid by CBS Corp. are a small share, about 4%, of the total sought. Bald eagles on Catalina Island are still unable to reproduce because of DDT in their eggs, even though the pesticide was banned over 25 years ago.
Federal officials will seek public comment on the settlement for 30 days, and then they and CBS will bring it before U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hauk for approval.
The government officials--known as the trustees in the case--have not yet decided how the money will be used. But it is expected to be dedicated to sealing off the contamination and restoring the resources.
Of the $9.5 million, $7 million will go to the EPA, which will try to seal off the contaminated sediment to protect fish, birds and other marine life.
The EPA, which has declared the ocean off Palos Verdes a federal Superfund site, will soon announce a plan that is expected to propose capping the contaminated parts of the ocean floor with a thick layer of sand. The estimated cost for the work is $125 million, while federal officials say another estimated $125 million is needed to restore marine life.
Montrose attorneys have vigorously fought the Justice Department, contending that the deposit is breaking down on its own and being buried by cleaner sediment. But government scientists contend that toxic compounds are still seeping out.
