Lead Contamination Spread Around More Than Thought

By: Duane Craig

Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska continues to surprise with more lead and antimony showing up in the soil, according to this report at KTVA Channel 11. It's a heavily used park and now the new soccer field is testing positive for lead contamination.

Biathlon left lead contamination in berms.

This is where skiers used to ski and shoot at the same time. Called a biathlon, the practice left thousands of lead bullets in the earthen mound behind targets. Over the years, as changes were made to the park, the lead-filled dirt was spread around to raise low areas. Nobody knows just when the dirt was moved but it is currently estimated the volume of contaminated soil could equal a thousand cubic yards.

Once the cleanup begins the contaminated soil will be removed, coated to encapsulate the lead and then disposed of. Costs are expected to be between $500,000 and $1 million. The city is working to get responsible parties to pay their shares of the total but that is dependent upon the outcome of a lawsuit
 that is currently in court.

Locating the contaminated soil is challenging and requires visual examination and using metal detectors. There's more on this story, here.

California Neighborhood Suing Merck for Pollution

March 25, 2010 - In a case with undertones of "Erin Brokovich," some of the more than 2,000 people from the Beachwood neighborhood, who have been battling sickness and ill health, will soon witness the first phase of a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.

The lawsuit alleges that a subsidiary of Merck polluted groundwater and soil in the area for years and caused sickness and death in the area. Merck strongly denies the allegations. A federal court will soon decide which of the more than 2,000 plaintiffs will act as representatives in the first phase of the lawsuit against the $100 billion-plus company, as well as a group of other defendants.

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Northeast Pa. residents sue Houston-based natural gas driller over polluted water wells

November 20, 2009 - At a news conference Friday to announce the suit, residents described an ordeal that began shortly after Cabot started drilling near their homes. The water that came out of their faucets suddenly became cloudy and discolored, and it smelled and tasted foul.

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Shell Oil Co. sued over contaminated neighborhood in California

October 19, 2009 - One of the largest oil companies in the world, Shell Oil Company, is being sued by hundreds of angry Carson residents who claim Shell contaminated a neighborhood with a cancer-causing carcinogen. The residents assert the contamination have led to the deaths of four residents. The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 in Long Beach Superior Court, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News.

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New York City Says Exxon Is Liable for Tainted Well Water in Queens

August 6, 2009 - Lawyers for New York City are trying to convince a jury in a federal trial that Exxon Mobile knew that an additive that it used in gasoline would contaminate groundwater.

The trial, which began on Tuesday is one of hundreds of cases that have been presented around the country against oil companies over the additive, M.T.B.E., a chemical compound that replaced lead in gasoline as an octane enhancer. Such enhancers boost engine performance and help prevent knocking.

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Massachusetts Pastor Cries Environmental Foul Over Nearby Contamination

May 4, 2009 - A pastor in Freetown, Mass., is calling on the city to enforce environmental regulations related to contaminants surrounding his church and the neighborhood.

The Rev. Curtis Dias of Calvary Pentecostal Church in Freetown has been engaged in a seven-year-long lawsuit of the city of Freetown and involving the Environmental Protection Agency. Dias points to a former twist drill site, a field laden with PCB and an old Aerovox factory that produced electronic capacitors all nearby.

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Exxon faces environmental contamination lawsuit in Maryland

March 23, 2009 - Ninety-one families who sued Exxon Mobile for environmental contamination have been awarded $150 million in their lawsuit. The lawsuit followed a gasoline leak that contaminated wells and forced people to buy bottled water.

The leak occurred in 2006, when an underground storage tank leaked approximately 26,000 gallons of gasoline. The leak went on for 37 days before it was discovered. Families were awarded approximately $1 million each for emotional distress plus the value of their homes and medical monitoring.

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Ithaca NY: South Hill TCE sparks lawsuit by 90 neighbors

March 21, 2009 - Alleging that the industrial solvent TCE contaminating their homes has reduced their property values and increased their risk of future illness, 90 South Hill residents have filed a class action lawsuit against Emerson Power Transmission, Emerson Electric Company, BorgWarner Inc. and Burns International Services Corporation.

The companies responded by saying they were unaware of problems or were following standard industry practices, and that if there were harm to residents, the statutes of limitation have expired.

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Ailing W.Va. towns with bad water sue over slurry

February 3, 2009 - Maria Lambert says she never had clear, odorless, tasteless water. Sometimes it felt greasy or smelled of rotten eggs. But the day a blast from a nearby strip mine shook her southern West Virginia home, it got worse.

Now, she and 250 people with orange and black water in their taps, tubs and toilets are suing eight coal companies they believe poisoned their wells by pumping mine wastes into former underground mines.

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W. Chicago homeowner sues seller, agent over contamination

August 26, 2008 - Owners of a West Chicago house are suing their sellers, a real estate agent and her company, alleging they failed to disclose that the home was contaminated with radioactive thorium.

The 13-count lawsuit alleges fraud, misrepresentation, negligence and claims the property at 233 W. Stimmel St. is responsible for the deaths of three family dogs and the lingering respiratory illness to one of the owners.

At the heart of the suit is a portion of the sale contract that states the seller had no knowledge of "any hazardous waste on the real estate."

Sandy Riess said the sellers never disclosed that the property had undergone some thorium remediation, that it was located on a federal Superfund site or that the previous owners refused to have the land tested for radiation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Rulings overturned in Santa Rosa, California contaminated wells case

July 26, 2008 - A state appeals court has overturned much of a Sonoma County judge's ruling in a complex water contamination lawsuit filed by 32 Santa Rosa residents who say their wells were tainted with potentially cancer-causing chemicals in the 1990s.

The unanimous opinion, issued late Thursday by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, also reverses huge monetary sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys and sends the case back to Sonoma County Superior Court for further proceedings.

It also revives the case against one of the defendants, the former Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., which is now owned by JDSU in San Jose.

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Some Upper Ringwood, New Jersey Residents Fear They Won't Survive Legal Fight With Ford

July 28, 2008 - Two-and-a-half years after they filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Ford Motor Co., Upper Ringwood residents are steeling themselves for a long battle one that some believe they won't survive.

"I'll be dead before I get any money," said Mickey Van Dunk, 37. He's had 17 surgeries to treat a rare autoimmune disorder that's left his face heavily scarred.

Van Dunk and his neighbors many of them members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe blame Ford's dumping of industrial waste in Ringwood 40 years ago for an ocean of misery: multiple cases of cancer, asthma and other sicknesses, and a neighborhood that's a Superfund site.

Since they filed their lawsuit, residents say more have become ill. Several have died of cancer, a grandfather developed throat cancer, a 12-year-old girl had surgery to remove a tumor and her 7- year-old cousin was hospitalized for unexplained nosebleeds. This is in addition to a litany of illnesses and deaths claimed in their suit, which could be the largest environmental lawsuit ever in New Jersey.

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Massachusetts couple sue city over contamination

June 28, 2008 - NEW BEDFORD — A couple living in a house north of the contaminated Keith Middle School and New Bedford High School grounds have filed a lawsuit in Bristol County Superior Court seeking to have the city purchase their house and pay for what they believe are medical conditions and problems brought on by pollution.

The house is not one of the five houses the city has announced it intends to buy because of serious pollution from the former "burn dump" where companies disposed of and incinerated hazardous chemicals and waste for decades until the 1950s or 1960s. The houses the city plans to buy are located south of the schools on Greenwood and Ruggles streets, just off Hathaway Boulevard.

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Contamination case resurfaces in McAllen Texas

May 21, 2008 - Over the last two decades residents from a South McAllen neighborhood have been in and out of court seeking - and in some cases winning - punitive damages against natural gas operators, a railroad company and a convenience store chain over the contaminated ground 30 feet underneath the intersection of Business 83 and 23rd Street.

But the question of how the gas got there - whether it seeped from a natural gas pipeline or from a refined gasoline storage facility - still has no definitive answer, leaving cleanup of the contaminated area in limbo.

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MTBE leak puts lives of Maryland families on pause

May 9, 2008 - The Morgans can't rent the well-kept house with the manicured lawn and they won't let their daughter live there either.

After a toxic gasoline chemical leaked into their well, the Morgans are afraid of their water.

Since 2004, residents like the Morgans have worried about their health, quality of life and diminished property values. Some residents have shouldered the expense of bottled water and maintenance costs on a filtration system, all while waiting to see what happens with the lawsuits against their former neighbor, a major oil company.

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TCE contamination that plagues Ithaca New York's South Hill was first detected in 1972

May 7, 2008 - The TCE contamination that plagues Ithaca's South Hill was first detected in 1972, 15 years earlier than previously believed.

Confidential inter-office memos between Morse Chain executives from more than 30 years ago show that staff became aware of a degreaser leak that fed oil and trichloroethylene into the factory's fire water reservoir in August 1972.

Staff reviewed their options, including an “alternative ... to let things go as is.”

The memos were evidence in litigation brought by Emerson Electric Co. against BorgWarner roughly 20 years ago and were never previously reported.

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Residents of polluted Rhode Island neighborhood settle suit

April 23, 2008 - Lawyers for dozens of residents of a polluted Tiverton neighborhood say they have agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against an energy company over contamination that turned the soil under their homes blue.

Reynolds says the settlement involves money to the property owners as well as a pledge to clean up the contaminated properties.

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Florida Contamination Spurs Class-Action Against Raytheon

April 14, 2008 - A Pinellas County attorney filed a class-action lawsuit today against the Raytheon Corp. on behalf of residents who may be affected by contaminated groundwater in the Azalea area of St. Petersburg.

Saunders said he wants Raytheon to pay for medical screening of people in the neighborhood and that the stigma of contamination already has diminished property values.

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Couple sues Chevron over property oil contamination in San Luis Obispo California

April 11, 2008 - A pipeline under the land had leaked years ago, unbeknownst to the new landowners.

The suit alleges that Voisinet’s two lots on the northeastern end of San Luis Drive were tainted more than 25 years ago when a construction worker broke a Union Oil Co. of California pipeline.

According to the lawsuit, the company never adequately cleaned up the pollution and then allowed the lots to be sold for residential development without disclosing that the land was still contaminated.

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Gas contamination below ruins lives above in Utah

April 1, 2008 - The gas station a few blocks away had already been blamed for the closure of the movie theater and the dress shop. But Kuhni thought the smells were in her head. Then the first benzene reading inside her house came back - 34 micrograms per cubic meter. State guidelines say the risk of developing cancer increases with constant indoor exposure over 8.8 mcg a year.

She moved out - her 7-year-old daughter, the iguana, the dogs and some clothes. Her job taking reservations for Marriott Hotels is on hold. She shuttles between hotels, her parents' house in Lehi and a friend's place in Aurora.

Kuhni is one of dozens of Gunnison residents and business owners who filed suit against Wind River Petroleum and Top Stop gas stations earlier this month.

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