Judge Drops Suit Against Firms That Dumped Ddt

In a surprise move that sent shock waves through U.S. environmental agencies, a federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a huge government lawsuit against chemical companies that dumped millions of pounds of the pesticide DDT into the ocean off Los Angeles.

The unexpected decision by U.S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk dealt a severe blow to federal efforts to collect several hundred million dollars to be used to clean up the enormous offshore deposit of DDT the largest in the nation.

The dismissal - granted on the grounds that the government lawsuit was filed too late - came five years into the case and after $24 million was spent collecting evidence.

Before his ruling, the Los Angeles judge called environmentalists a bunch of “do gooders and pointy heads running around snooping” and “always complaining about something or another.”

The suit was the largest in U.S. history alleging damage to natural resources from chemical dumping.

Several lawyers said it was highly unusual for a judge to dismiss such a major case on lateness grounds after presiding over its litigation for so many years. In another unusual twist, the motion to dismiss was originally filed in 1993 by Montrose Chemical Corp., one of the firms sued.

An estimated 100 tons of DDT from the Montrose plant in Torrance, Calif., lies on the ocean floor was released into sewers that empty in the ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula from 1947, when the plant opened, through 1971.