DOWNTOWN — City Hall will collect $850,000 in a settlement rather than getting its hands dirty in a lawsuit over contaminated soil taken from the former Main Library site and delivered to a construction site.
Santa Monica was accused of being one of the responsible parties for asbestos-contaminated soil that was collected from the library site and delivered to a major Los Angeles developer.
The City Council on Tuesday agreed to support the settlement after Watson Land Co. filed a lawsuit in February seeking unspecified damages for ground soil used to build its Dominguez Technology Center, 1535 Beachey Place, in Carson, Calif. The soil was contaminated with asbestos that originated from the Santa Monica Library, according to Pilar Hoyos, a Watson spokeswoman.
Watson said in a July 2004 claim against City Hall that it received the soil in August of 2003 from Shoring Engineers, Inc., a subcontractor for Morley
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 27, 2005. Read the original PDF.