Lockwood Valley Pollution Suit Settled

A Lockwood Valley mining operator has agreed to pay $350,000 into a government-monitored trust to settle a lawsuit filed against the firm over allegations of air pollution and endangering the health of area residents, officials said Friday.

Pacific Custom Materials Inc. will use the money in the trust to install a system to monitor sulfite emissions and retrofit exhaust stacks and trucks that carry rock product, officials said.

The state attorney general, on behalf of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District and the California Air Resources Board, sued the company in October 2002, alleging repeated violations of emissions standards, officials said.

Although no fines were levied against the company in the settlement, the county and state plaintiffs will monitor the fund, officials said. The settlement was reached Thursday.

“We could have just said give us the money, but that wouldn’t have helped the Lockwood Valley residents,” Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long said Friday.

In addition, the monitoring system to be installed by the company will be permanently linked to a computer at the county air pollution control office, which will be monitored by county employees.

“I’m satisfied in the sense that they will spend a lot of money to do these upgrades, and we will have a system of checks and balances,” Long said.

Residents in the area in northern Ventura County, at least two of whom have filed separate lawsuits against the company, have long complained of dizziness, nausea, painful breathing and skin irritation as a result of the air pollution.