LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – Boeing wants reimbursement from the federal government for costs of the cleanup of an aircraft manufacturing plant in California.
In a lawsuit filed July 24 in Los Angeles federal court, the company says it is entitled to those costs for addressing contamination associated with the periods of time the federal government owned or operated the plant on Normandie Avenue in Torrance, as well as the adjacent Montrose Chemical and Del Amo Dual Superfund Site.
Boeing made aircraft parts and missile components for the U.S. military at the site from the 1950s to the early 1990s. It says volatile organic compounds were released while making the parts for the government, resulting in contamination of groundwater.
“Waste was created when hazardous substances were used to manufacture military aircraft parts and components at the site,” the lawsuit says.
“Pursuant to the supply contracts, the federal government owned the waste that was created when these hazardous substances were used for the manufacture of military aircraft parts and components at the site.”
The neighboring Montrose plant, which produced pesticides and rubber, also released hazardous substances that potentially migrated to the area Boeing is now paying to clean up, the suit says.