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  2. Stringfellow Acid Pits: The Toxic and Legal Legacy

Stringfellow Acid Pits: The Toxic and Legal Legacy

Brian Craig 2020
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Stringfellow Acid Pits tells the story of one of the most toxic places in the United States, and of an epic legal battle waged to clean up the site and hold those responsible accountable. In 1955, California officials approached rock quarry owner James Stringfellow about using his land in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, as a hazardous dump site. Officials claimed it was a natural waste disposal site because of the impermeable rocks that underlay the surface. They were gravely mistaken. Over 33 million gallons of industrial chemicals from more than a dozen of the nation's most prominent companies poured into the site's unlined ponds. In the 1960s and 1970s, heavy rains forced surges of chemical-laden water into Pyrite Creek and the nearby town of Glen Avon. Children played in the froth, making fake beards with the chemical foam. The liquid waste contaminated the groundwater, threatening the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of California residents. Penny Newman, a special education teacher and mother, led a grassroots army of  so-called "hysterical housewives" who demanded answers and fought to clean up the toxic dump.

The ensuing three-decade legal saga involved more than 1,000 lawyers, 4,000 plaintiffs, and nearly 200 defendants, and led to the longest civil trial in California history. The author unveils the environmental and legal history surrounding the Stringfellow Acid Pits through meticulous research based on personal interviews, court records, and EPA and other documents. The contamination at the Stringfellow site will linger for hundreds of years. The legal fight has had an equally indelible influence, shaping environmental law, toxic torts, appellate procedure, takings law, and insurance coverage, into the present day.

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ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-05441-1 (paper)
  • 978-0-472-07441-9 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12649-1 (ebook)
Subject
  • Nature/Environment
  • Law:Legal History
  • Political Science:American Politics
Citable Link
  • Table of Contents

  • Resources

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. The Birth of the Stringfellow Acid Pits
  • Chapter 2. The Problem at the Pits
  • Chapter 3. Superfund and Sewergate
  • Chapter 4. United States v. Stringfellow
  • Chapter 5. The U.S. Supreme Court Chimes In
  • Chapter 6. Federal Judge and Jury Strike a Blow to the Golden State
  • Chapter 7. Grueling Jury Trial Held in a Custom-Built Courtroom
  • Chapter 8. California Considered “Grossly Negligent, if Not Reckless”
  • Chapter 9. Takings Claims Are Rejected
  • Chapter 10. The Insurance Battle
  • Chapter 11. Cleaning Up the Stringfellow Acid Pits
  • Chapter 12. The Legacy of Stringfellow and Lessons Learned
  • Notes
  • Stringfellow Acid Pits Timeline
  • Index

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Photo of open ponds at the Stringfellow Acid Pits

Open ponds at the Stringfellow Acid Pits

From Chapter 1

Figure 1: Open ponds at the Stringfellow Acid Pits. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo of Judge Malcolm Lucas

Photo of Judge Malcolm Lucas

From Chapter 4

Figure 2: Judge Malcolm Lucas originally presided over the Stringfellow case as a federal district judge and later decided insurance related claims as California Supreme Court Chief Justice. Courtesy of the Supreme Court of California

Map of Stringfellow Superfund Site Area showing the four different zones and the EPA Study Areas

Map of Stringfellow Superfund Site Area showing the four different zones and the EPA study areas

From Chapter 11

Figure 3: Map of Stringfellow Superfund site area showing the four different zones. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo of the Stringfellow Superfund site with vegetation growing after removal of the acid pits

Photo of the Stringfellow Acid Pits site with vegetation growing

From Chapter 11

Figure 4: Stringfellow Superfund site. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo of the Stringfellow Superfund Site with vegetation growing after removal of the acid pits

Photo of the Stringfellow Acid Pits site and Jurupa Mountains

From Chapter 11

Figure 5: Stringfellow Superfund site and the Jurupa Mountains. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo of the Pyrite Canyon Treatment Facility showing tanks and pumps

Photo of the Pyrite Canyon Treatment Facility with tanks and pumps

From Chapter 11

Figure 6: Pyrite Canyon Treatment Facility with tanks and pumps to process contaminated groundwater. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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