[CPEO-BIF] Perc producers held liable for contamination (Modesto, CA)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Modesto awarded $18M in groundwater lawsuit

By Adam Ashton
Modesto Bee (CA)
May 20, 2009

A San Francisco jury has awarded $18.3 million to Modesto in a 
long-running lawsuit the city filed 11 years ago against producers of 
dry cleaning chemicals that leached into soil and polluted groundwater.
Modesto intends to put the money away for groundwater cleanup and to pay 
its attorneys' fees in the case.

The city argues that the chemical makers -- Dow Chemical of Michigan and 
PPG Industries of Pennsylvania -- bear a share of the responsibility for 
what could amount to $100 million in costs to remove perchloroethylene, 
a chemical referred to as PCE that is suspected of causing cancer, from 
Modesto groundwater.

The city has collected more than $23 million from other chemical 
producers in settlements. It also has collected millions of dollars from 
insurance claims related to PCE leaking into groundwater from dry cleaners.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/710391.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org