BURBANK : Court to Examine Decree for Cleanup

A consent decree providing for ground-water cleanup in Burbank under the federal Superfund program will be the subject of a March 23 hearing in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, an official with the U. S. attorney’s office said.

Court approval of the agreement is needed before construction begins on an elaborate treatment system that is to purge ground-water supplies of solvents suspected of causing cancer. Extraction and treatment of the ground water could go on continuously for up to 20 years and cost at least $70 million.

Some 12,000 gallons of water per minute are to be pumped and treated. Most of the water is to be supplied to Burbank residents and the rest re-injected into the ground.

The agreement calls for Lockheed Corp. to design, build and operate the system during the first few years at an estimated cost to the firm of about $60 million. But the company--considered a major contributor to the ground-water problem--is expected to recover most, if not all, its contribution from insurance and from the Department of Defense, a major customer that once owned a portion of Lockheed’s Burbank plant.

Other signatories include the city of Burbank, which is to construct and maintain some of the equipment, and Weber Aircraft Inc., which is to contribute $3.75 million to the effort.

Federal authorities are expected to bring legal action against other Burbank-area companies to recover funds for phases of the cleanup not assigned to any of the signatories.