Wichita ? Wichita wanted four companies to pay more than $13 million toward investigating and cleaning up groundwater pollution in a six-square mile area south of downtown, but a federal judge’s order sharply limits what they’ll be liable for.

The city filed suit in 1998 against 26 companies, most of which reached settlements before the case advanced to trial.

Industrial solvents were first detected nearly 17 years ago in groundwater in the Gilbert-Mosley site. In 1991 the city agreed to take responsibility for the cleanup to keep the federal government from naming the downtown area a Superfund site, which would have halted all real estate sales just as the city was preparing to develop Old Town.

At the time, the city promised residents that polluters, not taxpayers, would pay the cleanup costs, and it filed suit in 1998.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled that trustees of APCO Oil Corporation Liquidating Trust were liable for $184,000 in costs the city has already incurred, not the $7.3 million the city asked for.

Reid Supply Co., from which the city sought $4.48 million, is liable only for $16,000 in past costs, the judge ruled. And he said that Land Tool Co. was liable for $4,277 in past costs, not the $82,000 the city wanted.

Wichita was also seeking $1.5 million from a fourth company, Tri-Supply. But the judge ruled that the dry cleaning supply company did not contribute to the pollution, noting that it had spilled only two gallons of solvent on a concrete floor in the summer of 1994.

City claims victory

Despite getting far less than they were seeking, city officials declared victory, calling Belot’s decision a milestone in the complex dispute over how to pay for cleaning up the site.

“It’s been a long and difficult process,” City Manager Chris Cherches said in a statement on his last day in office, “but in the end our community will be stronger and citizens will have a greater knowledge of their responsibility to the environment and how their actions today can impact future generations.”

Assistant City Atty. Joe Lang said it was too early to tell whether the city would appeal Belot’s ruling.

“We haven’t had a chance to analyze the decision, but since it’s in our favor, it’s unlikely,” he said.

Long, expensive cleanup

The earlier settlements and Wednesday’s ruling means the city will collect just under $10 million toward the estimated $32 million cleanup cost. The final cost is difficult to project because cleanup will take about 70 years.

The city declined to say how much it had spent in legal fees to collect that $10 million. As of 2000, however, the city council had approved $2.5 million in legal expenses, which was before the eight-week trial.

The city also is in mediation with the Coleman Co., which has admitted to causing some of the pollution.

Whatever of the remaining $22 million bill the city can’t collect from the Coleman Co. will come from taxpayers.

The city has said that if it hadn’t taken responsibility for paying to clean up the contaminated groundwater, downtown property value would have dropped by 40 percent, and the city would have lost far more in property taxes that it couldn’t collect.

The judge did rule that there was significant releases of pollution from APCO’s former warehouse in 1967 and 1971, and said that the cleanup was necessary. APCO Trust contended that the cleanup was not needed because the city acted out of economic, rather than health and safety concerns.

The city will be allowed to collect some of its future cleanup costs from APCO, Reid Supply and Land Tool Co. However, the total amount it receives probably will not exceed $700,000.

Belot’s ruling indicated that the city brought some of its problems on itself because its slow response allowed the groundwater contamination to spread farther. The judge said the city was unable to find all the companies that contributed to the pollution, and that it settled for too little with some companies, while other companies paid more than their share.