Only one oil company left to pay out in MTBE lawsuit
City Hall will receive $350,000 after politicians agreed Tuesday to settle a lawsuit against WinAll Oil Co., one of 18 oil companies accused of contaminating Santa Monica’s drinking water wells in 1996.
To date, the oil companies have agreed to pay City Hall more than $117 million for allowing MTBE, a gasoline additive, to seep into several of the city’s wells. Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether cleans emissions, but is toxic if ingested.
WinAll’s settlement offer was unanimously approved, bringing City Hall one step closer to the end of a contentious, three-year legal dispute. Assistant City Attorney Joe Lawrence said there is one oil company left that’s expected to settle in the coming weeks for about the same amount as WinAll.
“Each of these are separate settlements,” he said. “WinAll is a very small company and that’s why they got out for that amount.”
The settlement leaves only Lyondell Chemical Co. as a defendant. Lyondell, a manufacturers of MTBE, has refused to discuss any settlement. Lawrence said litigation is moving forward on the largest lawsuit ever levied by City Hall.
Santa Monica’s crusade against MTBE set the stage for national efforts to clean up the additive. Though California took an aggressive stance against the additive and banned it this year, the Bush administration in February quietly shelved a proposal to ban MTBE in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million to Republicans.
Elected officials praised the work done on the lawsuit.
“Our legal and environmental staffs deserve tremendous credit for taking on some of the biggest corporations in the world and bringing home a settlement that fully restores our local water supply,” said City Councilman Kevin McKeown. “Besides protecting city rate payers and providing pure water for generations to come in Santa Monica, we’ve championed the principle that polluters must make whole the communities they damage.”
“... We’ve championed the principle that polluters must make whole the communities they damage.” — — KEVIN MCKEOWN Santa Monica City Councilman
In addition to the cash payments, three oil companies — Shell, ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil — agreed last year to pay whatever it takes to clean up the contamination, which was caused when underground storage tanks leaked gas into the ground water. The companies also agreed to pay City Hall $92.5 million in cash.
A new treatment facility was to be built specifically to clean up the city’s water at the Charnock Well Field in West LA, the city’s main water source.
The settlement ensures that the oil companies will pay for all costs to construct, operate and maintain the treatment plant, which officials expect will clean the city’s water supply by 2008. Costs could exceed several hundred million dollars.
City Hall’s lawsuit was levied against the oil companies and manufacturers in 2000. The cash settlements will be used to cover out-of-pocket costs, and other city needs, like continued water quality improvements and water security.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 25, 2004. Read the original PDF.