MONTEREY PARK : Trash Haulers Sued in Liability Dispute

Los Angeles County and five waste disposal districts sued 25 trash haulers Monday to make them pay if the county is held liable in lawsuits over toxicity problems at the Operating Industries landfill in Monterey Park.

The county and the Athens-Woodcrest-Olivita, Belvedere, Firestone, Mesa Heights and Walnut Park disposal districts filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. It asks a judge to rule that the county and districts may recover any liability costs--including legal fees and cleanup payments--from the trash haulers that took refuse to the landfill. The county and the districts are defendants in another lawsuit in which the trash haulers allege that the county and districts, because they hired the haulers, are liable for arranging for the transport of trash to the dump.

The county and districts deny any such liability. But if they lose the lawsuit, they want the haulers to foot the bill.

The Operating Industries landfill received garbage from 1948 to 1984, when it was closed because of community protests. Besides the residential, industrial and commercial trash, hazardous liquid wastes were dumped at the site between 1976 and 1983.

The dump is considered one of the nation’s most polluted sites and is on the Superfund list. Some officials have estimated that a cleanup could take 30 years.