HIGH COURT TO RULE ON CLEANUP CASE COULD AFFECT VALLEY'S WHITTAKER-BERMITE SITE.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE

Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The U.S. Supreme Court will rule in June on a lawsuit involving voluntary cleanup of contamination, and that ruling could affect Santa Clarita as work continues to clear chemicals from a former munitions plant.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency, the wholesaler serving the Santa Clarita Valley, has filed a friend of the court brief, supporting the plaintiffs' arguments in the case.

At issue is whether a federal law that provides a means for recovering cleanup costs will be upheld in those types of cases.

"A favorable result will help promote cleanups all across the country," said Fred Fudacz, a partner with California-based Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott LLP, which represented the water agency and others in the friend of the court brief.

The case was argued Tuesday before the Supreme Court. Atlantic Research Corp., a subsidiary of Sequa Corp., had sought to recover cleanup costs from the federal government. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the company's right to do so; the government appealed. A decision is expected in June.

Earlier, Nossaman Guthner filed the amicus brief backing the lower court ruling on behalf of the CLWA and several state and national water agencies.

Groundwater contaminated by perchlorate and other chemicals -- at the Whittaker-Bermite site in the heart of Santa Clarita and other locales -- is costly and time-consuming to clean up.

"The relevance to us is, if there's additional contamination from the Whittaker-Bermite site, it enhances our ability to pursue action and obtain financial remuneration, much in the same way we did on the perchlorate litigation," said Dan Masnada, general manager of the CLWA.

Contaminants in the soil and groundwater remain from five decades of weapons manufacturing and testing on the 996-acre Whittaker-Bermite site in the middle of town. Bermite, its insurer and others are paying for the cleanup.

Perchlorate, a chemical residue from rocket fuel that has been implicated in thyroid problems, is the major contaminant left from the Bermite business.

In March, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control began overseeing cleanup of soil at the site where explosives were manufactured and tested from 1934 to 1987. The Bermite property, now eyed for development, is bounded by Soledad Canyon Road, Golden Valley Road and San Fernando Road. The Circle J development is to the south.

Off-site cleanup of tainted groundwater will begin in 2008 after pipelines and a treatment plant are built during the next year, Masnada said. The plant will join the agency's other facility near Bouquet Canyon Road and Valencia Boulevard.

A nearby plant that treats water from Valencia Water Company's Q-2 well will be decommissioned after the new plant is built, its treatments integrated into the newer facility.

The CLWA augments the local groundwater supply with water purchased from the State Water Project in Northern California. The agency supplies local retailers, among them Valencia Water.

The new plant, which will also treat water from Saugus 1 and 2 wells, should stop the Saugus Formation's migrating perchlorate contamination plume, Masnada said, adding that customers need not worry.

"All drinking water is tested to ensure it is 100percent potable and safe," he said. "Customers are not receiving any water with perchlorate in it and never will."