EPA announces cleanup agreements

The federal government on Tuesday announced agreements with six firms to address underground water contamination in the San Fernando Valley, including in Glendale.

The Environmental Protection Agency reached agreements with Goodrich Corp., ITT Corp., Lockheed Martin and PRC DeSoto International to invest roughly $1 million for continued investigation into underground contamination as result of past manufacturing in the San Fernando corridor and other areas. Problems with chromium 6 contamination and other toxins have long plagued the area, prompting millions in remediation and clean-up efforts.

The companies also agreed to pay $750,000 to the EPA for the agency’s partial share of investigation and cleanup costs, according to the announcement.

The EPA also announced a settlement worth a combined $2.2 million with Honeywell International and Lockheed for design work on expanded cleanup of underground contamination in the North Hollywood area.

In a statement, Jane Diamond, director of the Superfund division in EPA’s Pacific Southwest region, said the agreements were part of an effort to make sure “those responsible for contamination pay their fair share of cleanup costs, leveraging the taxpayer’s dollars to conduct further cleanups.”

Bob Hope Airport officials last month agreed to pay $2 million to Lockheed Martin Corp. in exchange for a guarantee from the aerospace company that it will cover the cost of what is expected to be a $108-million cleanup of contaminated groundwater under a portion of the airport.

And Glendale Water & Power has been working with a coalition of agencies to test a filtering system for stripping chromium 6 from underground water.

-Jason Wells