City to Get $2.5 Million From Oil Firms for Drilling

Redondo Beach will receive a $2.5-million settlement from several oil corporations that drilled in and around Redondo Beach’s King Harbor, city officials said.

In a lawsuit, the city alleged that the drilling caused several areas in the harbor to sink and caused millions of dollars in damage after a storm in 1988.

City Atty. Jerry Goddard said the eight oil companies named in the lawsuit were required to replace the oil they had taken with pressurized water. He said that because they did not, the surface under the water sank up to four feet in some areas.

The subsidence led the breakwater to sink four feet below its designed height of 22 feet, Goddard said, and caused storm-generated waves to crash over the protective wall. He said the storm caused more than $8 million in damage to local businesses, a cost absorbed by the city.

Several major oil companies were named in the suit, including Texaco, Exxon, Trident and Phillips Petroleum, Goddard said. The settlement, which is expected to be finalized next month, is the second award the city has received for damage caused by oil companies to the harbor. Goddard said another lawsuit was settled for $1.1 million in April.