Morgan Lewis
Denise Gail Fellers
Partner
+1.213.680.6427
[email protected]
August 11, 2026
VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS
CITY OF HAWAIIAN GARDENS
Norma Tabares
City Attorney
Best, Best & Krieger
300 South Grand Ave., 25th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Re: Important Legal Matter—Prompt Attention Required
Notice of Potential Liability and Fourth Tolling Agreement BKK Landfill, West Covina, CA
City of Hawaiian Gardens
Dear City of Hawaiian Gardens Representative:
This firm represents the BKK Working Group, an unaffiliated association of entities that has entered into a series of judicially-approved consent decrees with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control C'DTSC") to take certain limited actions at the Class I Landfill portion ("Class I Landfill") of the BKK Corporation Landfill Facility in West Covina, CA (the "Site"). The BKK Working Group previously entered into a Third Tolling Agreement with City of Hawaiian Gardens (hereinafter referred to as "YOU" or "YOUR"). As we previously informed YOU, the BKK Working Group has recently discovered information suggesting that City of Hawaiian Gardens (hereinafter referred to as "YOU") disposed of waste at the Class I Landfill and may therefore be liable for necessary response actions and other costs incurred by the BKK Working Group under § 107(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a), and California Health and Safety Code § 78145. Enclosed with this letter is a Fourth Tolling Agreement relating to potential claims the BKK Working Group may have against YOU based on its work at the Class I Landfill. At this time, the Working Group requests that YOU enter into a Fourth Tolling Agreement.
DB3/ 205297805.1
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius llp
300 South Grand Avenue
Twenty-Second Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071-3132
United States
O +1.213.612.2500
O+1.213.612.2501
August 11, 2026
The BKK Landfill and Response Actions
The BKK Site is an approximately 583-acre facility located at 2210 South Azusa Avenue, West Covina, California. The Site contains a closed hazardous waste Class I landfill, a closed Class III municipal solid waste landfill, and related facilities including a leachate treatment plant and a landfill gas collection system. The Class I Landfill is approximately 190 acres in size and accepted waste from roughly 1962 to 1987. In total, the Class I Landfill accepted approximately five million tons of liquid and solid hazardous wastes together with substantially greater amounts of municipal and commercial wastes. BKK Corporation is the owner and operator of the Class I and Class III landfills.
In October 2004, BKK Corporation announced that it could not continue to conduct post-closure care for the Class I Landfill after November 17, 2004. Consequently, DTSC engaged a contractor to conduct emergency response activities and to operate and maintain the Class I Landfill's critical equipment and systems. In December 2004, DTSC issued an "Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Determination and Order and Remedial Action Order" ("ISE Order") to BKK Corporation and 50 other respondents, including former customers, who were alleged to be potentially responsible for conditions at the BKK Landfill. Some of these respondents are now members of the BKK Working Group. The ISE Order required the respondents to conduct operation and maintenance activities at the Class I Landfill and the leachate treatment plant.
In 2005, pursuant to several interim settlement agreements, the BKK Working Group began reimbursing DTSC for a portion of its response costs. In October 2005, the BKK Working Group and DTSC lodged a proposed Consent Decree with the Federal District Court for the Central District of California. That Consent Decree provided for the BKK Working Group to complete certain projects and perform operations at the BKK Class I Landfill and to pay for, and be released from, certain of DTSC's response costs. It also provided for DTSC to dismiss, without prejudice, the ISE Order against the BKK Working Group members. The Court entered the Consent Decree on March 6, 2006. The BKK Working Group and DTSC next agreed to a Second Consent Decree, which was entered by the Court on August 10, 2010. The Second Consent Decree required the BKK Working Group to conduct additional investigation activities at the Class I Landfill. Finally, the BKK Working Group and DTSC agreed to a Third Consent Decree, which requires the BKK Working Group to conduct certain investigation activities at the Class I Landfill related to groundwater. The Federal District Court entered the Third Consent Decree on July 24, 2015 and the First Amended Third Partial Consent Decree on October 18, 2016. DTSC may conduct or compel additional actions at the BKK Class I Landfill, including actions to address groundwater contamination.
Additional information about the BKK Site may be found at:
https://dtsc.ca.gov/hw-projects/bkk-corporation-landfill/ and http://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.qov/public/Drofile report.asp?qlobal id=19490005 Notice of Potential Liability
DTSC has documented the release or threatened release of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants at the Class I Landfill. DTSC spent and will spend public funds, and the BKK Working Group spent and will spend its funds, on actions to investigate and control such releases or threatened releases at the Class I Landfill. Under provisions of California's Hazardous Substance Account Act ("HSAA"), Health and Safety Code sections 78000 etseq., including sections 79055 DB3/ 205297805.1
August 11, 2026
and 78870, DTSC may order potentially responsible parties ("PRPs") to perform response actions deemed necessary by DTSC to protect the public health, welfare or the environment. Also, under the HSAA and CERCLA, PRPs may be compelled to compensate DTSC or other parties, including but not limited to the BKK Working Group, for costs incurred in responding to any release or threatened release at the Class I Landfill. Such actions and costs may include, but are not limited to, expenditures for conducting daily maintenance of the Class I Landfill and associated systems, necessary repair work, monitoring and other post-closure activities, Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analyses, Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Studies, Remedial Design/Remedial Actions, groundwater cleanup and other investigative, planning, response oversight and enforcement activities. In addition, PRPs may be required to pay damages for injury to, destruction of, or loss of natural resources, including the cost of assessing such damages.
Shipping records maintained by DTSC and the BKK Corporation, as well as other business records maintained by the BKK Corporation, identify generators who arranged for the disposal of waste at the Class I landfill. Based on this information, the BKK Working Group believes that YOU are one of the generators that disposed of waste at the Class I landfill and therefore a PRP with respect to the Facility.
Fourth Tolling Agreement
The BKK Working Group has incurred response costs related to the BKK Class I Landfill, including but not limited to costs incurred pursuant to the three Consent Decrees. As a result, the BKK Working Group possesses claims against you for the recovery of response costs pursuant to CERCLA, the HSAA, and California common law. The BKK Working Group strongly prefers that any litigation be deferred until such time as a long-term settlement and enforcement approach has been developed for the Class I Landfill and that you and the other entities who arranged for the disposal of wastes have had the opportunity to participate in such a settlement. The BKK Working Group is working with DTSC on such an approach.
The BKK Working Group previously entered into a Third Tolling Agreement with YOU that will terminate on September 25, 2026. Enclosed is a Fourth Tolling Agreement that would further toll, or stop, any statute of limitations applicable to potential claims that the BKK Working Group has against you—or that you have against the BKK Working Group—relating to the Site from the effective date of the Fourth Tolling Agreement through 60 days following the termination of the Fourth Tolling Agreement. The Fourth Tolling Agreement terminates on September 25, 2029. The Fourth Tolling Agreement does not constitute an admission of fact or of liability. It is simply intended to provide the parties with additional time to consider settlement options. Please give these matters your immediate attention.
Information to Assist Responsible Parties
Please sign and return the Fourth Tolling Agreement to the following address (or e-mail a pdf of a signed copy of the entire Fourth Tolling Agreement) no later than September 18, 2026 to:
Marina Rodriguez
Senior Paralegal
Morgan Lewis 8i Bockius LLP
300 South Grand Avenue, Suite 2200
Los Angeles, CA 90071
[email protected]
DB3/ 205297805.1
August 11, 2026
Following receipt of the signed Fourth Tolling Agreement, the BKK Working Group will sign and return a fully executed copy to you at the above address or any other address you so designate below the signature block of the Fourth Tolling Agreement.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please contact me at (213) 680-6427 or [email protected].
Sincerely,
Denise Gail Fellers
DGF
Enclosures
DB3/ 205297805.1