Trial Lawyers Hold Environmental Polluters Accountable for Their Actions and Keep the Public Safe

The courts are the last line of defense against those who knowingly pollute the air and water.

DuPont's Benlate Fungicide
DuPont came under fire in the early 1990s when its fungicide, Benlate DF 50, was linked to serious birth defects and crop damage. In one case, a child named John Castillo was born in Florida in June of 1990 without eyes. His mother, Donna, was seven weeks pregnant in 1989 when she walked through a field on Pine Island Farms and was sprayed with Benlate by a passing tractor.¹ Benlate contains the chemical Benomyl, which has been linked to microphthalmia, a birth defect involving severely underdeveloped eyes. The Castillos sued DuPont and Pine Island Farms in 1996, and were represented by James Ferraro.² In June of that year, a jury found DuPont liable and ordered the company to compensate the Castillos. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the verdict in 2003.

DuPont faced numerous lawsuits over Benlate, including many from farmers who claimed that the company was aware that the fungicide caused serious damage to crops yet continued to market it anyway. Finally, the lawsuits forced DuPont to pulled Benlate from the market in 2001.

Hayden and Craig Power Plants (Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area)
In 1993, the Sierra Club sued the owners of the coal-fired Hayden Power Plant in Yampa Valley, Colorado for 17,000 violations of the Clean Air Act. Pollutants from two plants were traveling 40 miles upwind and landing in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area, which had the highest acidity of any federally monitored site west of the Mississippi.³ Reed Zars, a member of the Sierra Club's Rocky Mountain Chapter, represented the group in the case. In 1996, Zars reached a settlement with the owners of the Hayden plant in which they agreed to pay for pollution control upgrades and environmental conservation projects in Yampa Valley.⁴

After the settlement, Zars waited for the owners of the Hayden plant to voluntarily upgrade a second plant. When no measures were taken, the Sierra Club filed a suit against the Craig Power Plant in 1996. Lawyers for the defense tried to prohibit evidence from the Hayden case from being used in the Craig case, but were denied. In 2001, the owners of the Craig plant were ordered by the court to pay for pollution controls and put a substantial amount of money into a renewable energy fund.⁵

Velsicol Chemical Company (Memphis, TN)
In 1964, Memphis city officials ordered Velsicol Chemical Company, a pesticide manufacturer, to stop pouring chemical byproducts into city sewers and dumps.⁶ Rather than incinerate its waste, Velsicol chose the cheaper alternative of burying its toxic chemicals in 55-gallon drums on farmland in Hardeman County. The company buried over 300,000 drums between 1964 and 1973, many of which were broken by bulldozers making room for more. The chemicals seeped into the water supply.

By 1977, Hardeman County residents were developing serious health problems. Daniel and Patsy Johnson's daughter became so ill that her vomit bleached their wood kitchen floor. Other residents noticed that their eyes burned when they showered, that white powder would be left on dishes after they went through the dishwasher and that the air constantly smelled like bug-spray.⁷ The EPA found carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, benzene and trichlorothane in the water.⁸

Attorney Sid Gilreath represented over 100 plaintiffs in the Sterling v. Velsicol Chem. Corp, with five claims chosen as a representation of the damages. After two years, the judge found that Velsicol was negligent and ordered the company to pay compensatory damages to the five plaintiffs whose cases were used in trial and punitive damages for all 100 plaintiffs.⁹ The state also ordered Velsicol to clean up the site it had ruined.

Lockheed Martin and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit against Lockheed Martin in 1999 for environmental violations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky.¹⁰ The Department of Energy owns the plant, but Lockheed subcontracted it from 1984 to 1998 to produce enriched uranium. During that time, uranium-laced smoke, steam and gas was released into the air, while radioactive sludge was intentionally dumped in nearby landfills, fields and abandoned buildings.¹¹

Documents filed in the lawsuit indicate that plutonium was also present on site, even though the plant was designed to handle only uranium.¹² The lawsuit claimed that Lockheed Martin made false statements to the government regarding its environmental safety record and was filed under a law that allows employees who expose fraud against the government to collect payment.¹³ The Department of Justice joined the suit in 2003.

Lockheed Martin Skunkworks (Burbank, CA)
Lockheed Martin's Skunkworks factory was responsible for producing many of the U.S. Air Force's stealth planes. It was also responsible for polluting nearby groundwater with toxic chemicals, which caused residents to develop breast cancer, leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After a series of lawsuits from 1996 to 2002, Lockheed Martin agreed to compensate nearly 1,800 people affected by groundwater contamination.¹⁴

Sources:

1. Greenwald, Judy, "Court Reinstates Benlate Award," Business Insurance, July 11, 2003.
2. Care, Alan, http://www.ecochem.com/ENN_costillo.html viewed on September 30, 2005.
   
3. Coyle, Jenny, The Planet Newsletter: Victory, Two Cases: Clean Air in Rockies, Sierra Club, http://www.sierraclub.org/planet/200112/victory.asp, viewed on October 3, 2005.
   
4. Id.
   
5. Id.
   
6. Smith, Wesley J., Fighting for Public Justice: Cases and Trial Lawyers that Made a Difference, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation, 2001, 318.
   
7. Id at 84.
   
8. Id.
   
9. Id.
   
10. Girard, Richard, Lockheed Martin: The Weapons Manufacturer that Does it All, Polaris Institute, October 2004, 28.
    
11. Press Release, "The Price of Nuclear Weapons: The Case of Paducah, Kentucky," Democracy Now! September 1, 1999.
    
12. Warrick, Joby, "In Harm's Way, But in the Dark," Washington Post, August 8, 1999, A1.
    Id.
    
13. Girard, Richard, supra note 15.
    
14. Guccione, Jean, "Lockheed to Settle Final Claims Over Toxins," Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2002, B3; "Lockheed Martin to Settle Suit over Water Contamination," WaterTechOnline, Legal Briefs, February 22, 2002, http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?mode=4&N_ID=29859 viewed on October 3, 2005; Gao, Helen, "Final 'Skunk Works' Suit Over: Lockheed Will Pay $1.25 Million to 40," Daily News (Los Angeles), April 17, 2002, N3.
    

October 25, 2005