Stringfellow Acid Pits: The Toxic and Legal Legacy

by Brian Craig

"Stringfellow Acid Pits describes one of the most contaminated places in the United States and the epic legal battle involving the hazardous waste site in Southern California. In 1955, California officials approached James Stringfellow about using his land in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, as a hazardous dump site. They said it was a natural waste disposal site because it was underlined by impermeable rocks, but 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 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. Some 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 grass-roots effort 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 environmental and legal history surrounding the Stringfellow Acid Pits is unveiled through meticulous research based on personal interviews and a careful review of court records, EPA documents, and other documents. The contamination at the Stringfellow site will linger for hundreds of years and shaped many of the laws today surrounding environmental law, toxic torts, appellate procedure, takings law, and insurance coverage"--

270 pages, Paperback

Published February 27, 2020

About the author

Brian Craig is an attorney in Logan, Utah. Besides helping his clients, he teaches online legal courses at Purdue University Global and Brigham Young University-Idaho. He previously taught at the University of Minnesota Law School. Before starting his own law firm, Brian worked as an attorney in the legal publishing and information services industry for Thomson-Reuters and Wolters Kluwer. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from Brigham Young University and his law degree from the University of Idaho.