ESCONDIDO : Toxic Dump Users Make Cleanup Offer

More than half of the 94 companies and governmental agencies that used the Chatham Brothers Barrel Yard, a toxic waste dump in rural Escondido, have submitted two separate offers to pay for part of the site’s cleanup, state officials said Monday.

The state will consider the two offers and make a decision by the end of the month or early next month, said Allan Hirsch, spokesman for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The state has spent $7.9 million in cleanup and research efforts since 1986, and a full cleanup of the ground water contaminated by toxic cleaning agents will probably cost more than $10 million more, Hirsch said.

Steven McDonald, an attorney representing a group of more than 50 of the parties being held responsible, said their offer would not pay for the entire cleanup, in part because of a dispute over the size and scope of the problem and its solution.