January 20, 2008 - A company being sued by neighbors for polluting groundwater around its plant here is asking a court to force those neighbors to help pay for testing and cleanup of contamination.
AVX Corp. says in a proposed complaint filed in federal court that federal laws require shared liability for environmental contamination. Cleanup of the property, which is contaminated with the chemical trichloroethylene, could cost millions of dollars.
"It's audacious that AVX would try to blame its pollution on the poor people who've worked all their lives for their homes," said Gene Connell, a lawyer representing property owners near AVX's headquarters in this resort town. "These are innocent landowners."
According to documents at the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, the company dumped trichloroethylene into groundwater and the city's sewer system for at least 14 years, ending in 1995, and has known about contamination at its site for 20 years. AVX paid a $7,000 fine as part of a consent agreement with state agency, but admitted no wrongdoing.
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Water Contamination, Land Pollution & Hazardous Waste Material are issues families all across America are afflicted with daily.
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