City Sues Oil Companies in "Biggest Case Ever"

By Teresa Rochester

Calling it Santa Monica's "biggest case ever," city officials announced Tuesday that it has slapped 18 oil industry firms with a lawsuit to force them to clean-up city drinking water contaminated by a gasoline additive that leaked from the companies' underground storage tanks.

This is the second suit the city has filed over the contaminated water since MtBe was discovered in the mid-nineties and the first where the city has hired outside attorneys, in this case three powerful firms, to battle the companies.

"For over 75 years, Santa Monica's water was safe and reliable. Now thanks to the oil industry, the city no longer can use most of its drinking water," said Mayor Ken Genser at a press conference Tuesday. "This outrage must stop.

"The time has come for the oil industry to pay for the clean-up of its pollution and for the city to regain use of its most precious natural resource - drinking water," Genser said.

Filed Monday, the suit comes six months after oil company representatives walked out of negotiations with the city over the clean-up of drinking water contaminated with MtBe -- a potentially cancer causing, non-biodegradable chemical -- in the city's aquifer in West Los Angeles.

Duane Miller and Victor Sher of Sacramento-based Miller, Sher and Sawyer; Scott Summy of Dallas-based Cooper and Scully and Fred Baron of Dallas-based Baron & Budd will represent the city.

Miller and Sher's law firm specializes in representing California cities seeking recovery for water contamination, while Summy's firm is recognized for its expertise in MtBe contamination. Baron is a preeminent trial attorney.

"Litigating against the oil companies is a daunting task," City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said. "Santa Monica is a small city, which needs to take on corporate giants with unimaginable financial resources and political power.

"To prepare for that fight we have found the best possible legal assistance, three highly qualified law firms that have agreed to work together with the city to win its biggest case ever," Moutrie said.

Clean-up of the five wells, which produce 60,000 gallons of water a minute, at the Charnock Well Field is anticipated to cost between $150 million to $200 million and take at least 10 years to complete.

In 1995 it was discovered that the water in the Charnock aquifer located in the Mar Vista area of West Los Angeles was contaminated with Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MtBe), that leaked from underground storage containers half a mile away. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has since found that service stations operated by numerous oil companies also contributed to the contamination.

Both Santa Monica and the Southern California Water Co. had drinking water wells at the Charnock site. With seven wells contaminated and out of service, Shell, Chevron and Exxon initially agreed to reimburse the city and the water company for water replacement costs.

The agreement with the city expired in early January and the companies balked at renewing it. In March the EPA and the LA Regional Water Quality Control ordered 13 companies - including Unocal Corp., ARCO Corp., Conoco Inc. and Tosco Corp. -- to fork over the funds which run approximately $3.5 million to $4 million a year.

In 1998, the city settled a suit with Mobil Oil Corp. to pay for cleaning up its Arcadia water wells located near Wilshire Boulevard and Bundy and to buy residents water piped in by the Metropolitan Water District.

MtBe, which has quickly become a household word in Santa Monica, reduces pollutants by helping gasoline burn more completely.

The issue has pitted environmentalists against each other. Those who support clean air favor MtBe and laud it for reducing pollution; however, those concerned about water quality say the chemical is dangerous when it leaks from storage tanks into drinking water supplies.