Dawn Crawford vs San Bernardino's Dirty County Politicians and  Officials

A settlement has been finalized in the lawsuits by Rialto and Colton against San Bernardino County over contamination of the cities' groundwater by a chemical found in rocket fuel and fireworks, authorities said Thursday.

A six-mile-long plume of perchlorate has tainted the Rialto-Colton aquifer, which feeds more than a dozen drinking wells that serve the two cities. The chemical has been linked to thyroid ailments.

San Bernardino County has spent more than $8 million on cleanup near the Mid-Valley landfill, the area the lawsuits cite as the suspected source of the contamination, according a county news release.

As part of the settlement, the county will treat contamination in the western portion of the basin, which officials said is likely to cost millions of dollars, and pay $4 million to Rialto and $1 million to Colton.

The cities agreed to dismiss claims against the county and two others: Robertson's Ready Mix Inc. and the Schulz parties. The cities had accused Robertson's, a concrete company that operated in the landfill area, and the Schulz parties, from whom the county bought property for the landfill, of contributing to the perchlorate contamination.

No liability was admitted by any of the parties in the agreement.

Additionally, the county will provide Colton with a limited supply of treated water, enough to supply about 400 families for a year, authorities said.

Colton City Manager Daryl Parrish said settlement talks stretched over three years, but began to take final shape in the past few months.

Rialto City Councilman Ed Scott was quoted in the county release as saying that the settlement "is a major step toward assuring our residents clean drinking water."

—Zeke Minaya
zminaya@PE.com