Myrtle Grove residents sue Dow, allege cover-up

 

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 Subject:   Myrtle Grove residents sue Dow, allege cover-up
 Date:      Thu, 10 Jan 2002 06:53:02 -0500
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

cc:    Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov

http://www.theadvocate.com/news/story.asp?StoryID=27016 Myrtle Grove residents sue Dow, allege cover-up

By BRETT BARROUQUERE Advocate staff writer

A group of current and former residents of the Myrtle Grove Trailer Park in Plaquemine is suing Dow Chemical, alleging the company knew about and covered up the contamination of their well water.

More than 200 people signed on to the lawsuit, claiming Dow illegally released vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen, and other poisonous chemicals into their water over a number of years.

"The sheer number of these illegal releases is staggering," Damon Kirin, attorney for the residents, wrote in the lawsuit.

Dow spokeswoman Donna Carville did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, is the latest round in an ongoing legal saga involving Dow and residents of the mobile homes.

The contamination came to light in early March, when the Department of Health and Hospitals announced it had discovered high levels of vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen, during a routine test of the water system of the trailer park south of Dow’s plant.

A week later, DHH officials said a records search uncovered tests that, three and four years earlier, found the chemical in the water system.

DHH admitted that for years it failed to warn people living in the trailer park that their drinking water is contaminated.

DHH has said it demoted and transferred the supervisor responsible for the failure to notify the residents.

An ongoing investigation by the state Department of Environmental Quality, aided by Dow, found more vinyl chloride contamination but has yet to identify a source.

DEQ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have both said they think the spill that contaminated the water occurred from 5 to 20 years ago.

The agencies say the vinyl chloride and a byproduct called dichloroethylene present are actually the result of the bio-degradation of trichloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene (also known as Perc, a dry cleaning fluid).

Dow has contended the information already collected shows they are not the source of the contamination. Dow, under the supervision of DEQ, is installing devices to measure how the underground water flows.

Despite Dow’s contentions, the plaintiffs claim the company has known about the contamination since 1984, but did nothing to warn area residents. And Dow continued to discharge more chemicals into the ground water, Kirin claims in the lawsuit.

Since 1989, Dow has "discovered a cornucopia" of hazardous and harmful materials in the ground water near the Plaquemine plant, including arsenic and vinyl chloride, Kirin wrote.

Included as plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit are current and former residents of Myrtle Grove as well as people who claimed to have visited the trailer park.

Several lawsuits have also been filed against Dow in state courts over the vinyl chloride.

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