Site Cleanup Settlement Reached

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The current and former owners of a nearly 1000-acre former munitions site in Santa Clarita have agreed to pay up to $100 million to settle a long-running lawsuit filed by four water agencies, removing a major obstacle to redeveloping the prime real estate.


Remediation Financial Inc. of Phoenix and previous owner Whittaker Corp. of Simi Valley have agreed to provide up to $100 million for the cleanup of perchlorate-contaminated groundwater emanating from the site under the settlement with the Castaic Lake Water Agency, the Newhall County Water District, the Santa Clarita Water Co. and the Valencia Water Co.


The settlement provides funding to construct replacement wells, pipelines and a treatment plant to remove the chemical a rocket fuel propellant and to maintain the treatment system for 30 years.


The Bermite industrial site began as a munitions factory during World War II before Whittaker Corp. bought the site and continued to make munitions and test rocket components for the aerospace industry. Whittaker closed the plant in 1987 and sold the site to Remediation Financial Inc, which in turn filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004.


In the intervening years, various development proposals have been floated for the site, a huge largely vacant parcel that sits squarely in between the western and eastern halves of Santa Clarita. One proposal approved by the city in 1995 called for a business park, 3,000 homes and an east-west arterial road; that plan was set aside as the extent of the perchlorate contamination became clear.


In 2000, the four water agencies filed suit against Whittaker and Remediation Financial Inc. after perchlorate was discovered in five wells that were immediately shut down.

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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