Settlement in DDT Case.

Striking a deal in one of the nation's largest and longest-running environmental cases, Montrose Chemical Corp. and two other companies agreed last week to pay an undisclosed amount to compensate Californians for damages linked to a giant DDT deposit in the ocean off Los Angeles.

After nearly a week of testimony, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real adjourned the trial, ordering that the agreement between the government and companies remain confidential until a consent decree outlining the terms is filed by Dec. 15.

Attorneys for both sides declined to discuss terms of the agreement. But the deal came near the end of the government's case, after several witnesses gave scientific testimony about the effects of half a century of contamination and after Montrose had suffered a major defeat during the trial.

The government was seeking roughly $150 million in the case. The issue of who must pay for cleaning up the deposit - Montrose or the federal Superfund - remains before a federal appeals court.

Montrose attorneys have long argued that the company's former pesticide plant near Torrance, which produced the DDT in question, had operated legally and that the ocean deposit is not harming birds, fish or other resources.