FULLERTON : EPA Says It’ll Sue McColl Oil Firms

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it will take legal action against five oil companies that refused last week to conduct a ground water study at the McColl toxic waste site.

Last month, the EPA ordered the oil companies to conduct tests to determine whether the refinery wastes dumped at McColl during World War II have seeped into the underground water table. The agency also ordered the companies to take over maintenance at the site and provide 24-hour security.

In response, the companies offered to pay up to $4.8 million for the study and site maintenance but refused to do the work themselves.

“It is clear the companies do not intend to comply with our order, and we are now prepared to pursue this matter in the courts,” Jeff Zelikson, EPA regional director of the hazardous waste division, said Monday in a statement.

The matter will be turned over to the U.S. Justice Department, he added.

In response, the oil companies--Atlantic Richfield, Phillips Petroleum, Shell Oil, Texaco Refining and Marketing and Union Oil--have complained that they tried to cooperate with the EPA as best they could by paying for the study and maintenance at McColl.

“We think we made a good-faith offer,” said William Duchie of Shell Oil, spokesman for the five companies.

The EPA maintains that the oil companies attached conditions to their $4.8-million offer. The conditions would have restricted how long the ground water study could have lasted and would have limited what could be studied, preventing the EPA from performing a complete ground water study, Zelikson said.

While the issue is headed to the courts for a solution, the EPA and the state Department of Health Services will conduct the ground water study and continue to maintain the dump.

The oil companies steadfastly maintain that since their refinery wastes were disposed of at McColl legally and that since they were under order from the U.S. military to produce the high-octane aviation fuel that led to the wastes, they hold no responsibility for paying to study or to clean up McColl.