Judge Opens Door to Quick Appeal of Ruling on DDT Dumping in Ocean

A federal judge who last week threw out a landmark government lawsuit against companies that released the pesticide DDT into the ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula has softened his ruling by deciding that his action warrants a quick review by an appeals court.

U.S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk informed attorneys that two legal issues in his ruling raised “new and novel questions of law” that need “immediate resolution”--including the case’s statute of limitations, the reason that he dismissed the lawsuit last week.

After presiding over the lawsuit for five years, Hauk ruled that the Justice Department had missed its deadline for filing the case and rejected a request by federal attorneys to accelerate the appeals process. The suit against Montrose Chemical Corp., which operated a DDT manufacturing plant in Torrance, and six other companies was the nation’s largest claim alleging damages to natural resources.

Before ruling, Hauk lambasted environmentalists as a bunch of “do-gooders and pointy-heads running around snooping.”

Although Hauk stood by his dismissal, his new order certifying an appeal gives the government more latitude in trying to reverse the judge’s decision. Without it, the Justice Department could not appeal the dismissal until another portion of the case--involving onshore pollution at the Montrose plant--was resolved. That could take years.

Hauk last week also limited total damages to $50 million. The federal government has been seeking hundreds of millions of dollars to help restore the damaged marine ecosystem and clean up the 100 tons of DDT that settled on the ocean floor.