Justice Department Files Suit to Recover Lockheed Cleanup Cost

The Justice Department has filed a $29-million lawsuit against Lockheed Martin Corp. and ITT Industries Inc. to recover costs of cleaning up soil and ground-water pollution in parts of the San Fernando Valley.

Lockheed Martin is engaged in a $190-million project to remove toxic chemicals that leached into the Valley’s aquifer from the company’s old manufacturing site in Burbank.

An ITT subsidiary, ITT Fluid Products Inc., was also blamed for polluting soil and underground water supplies from its former facility in Burbank.

The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday, involves the cost of restoring two areas near Glendale’s drinking water well fields and other unspecified sites.

More than 800,000 Valley residents have been receiving their water from other sources since 1986.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency found cancer-causing trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE) contamination in an underground plume 11 miles long and as much as three miles wide.

An ITT spokesman said the company hopes to resolve the dispute. Officials at Lockheed Martin could not be reached.