U.S. Water News Online
LOS ANGELES -- A $100 million groundwater cleanup deal was struck after a nearly seven-year legal battle with former and current owners of a defunct munitions plant.
Four Santa Clarita Valley water agencies agreed to the settlement calling for the Whittaker-Bermite facility's current and former owners to clean up the perchlorate contamination. The chemical is used in the manufacture of explosives, munitions and rocket fuel.
The Castaic Lake Water Agency, Newhall County Water District, Santa Clarita Water Co. and Valencia Water Co. sued current and former operators of the munitions site after perchlorate was found in five Santa Clarita Valley wells.
"This ensures funding for a very important cleanup project in the Santa Clarita Valley. It's very nice that we have a cooperative approach," attorney Frederic A. Fudacz said.
The settlement, reported by the Daily Journal, must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge in Arizona because the site's current owners, Remediation Financial Inc. and Arizona-based Santa Clarita LLC, filed for bankruptcy in 2002.
The 1,000-acre Bermite site manufactured ammunition, explosives, flares and detonators since the 1940s. Whittaker Corp. operated the site until 1999, when it was purchased by Remediation Financial and Santa Clarita LLC.
The settlement agreement reached by Whittaker, Remediation Financial and Santa Clarita provides $100 million for the construction of replacement wells, pipelines and a treatment facility to remove perchlorate.
"We are pleased to bring this negotiation to an end on a cooperative and amicable basis," Whittaker attorney Eric G. Lardiere said in a joint statement with the water agencies.
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