[CPEO-BIF] Another take on Modesto perc case

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Chemical Companies Cleared in Calif. Groundwater Pollution Case

Evan Hill
The Recorder (CA)
May 20, 2009

After five months of trial in San Francisco Superior Court, a jury 
cleared a handful of chemical companies on Monday of nearly all the 
claims brought against them by the city of Modesto, Calif., in the 
latest phase of a decade-old groundwater pollution case.

The jury did award Modesto about $18.3 million in damages to cover 
cleanup costs, but that amount could be nullified by settlements the 
city has already reached with other defendants.

The jury also decided that the remaining defendants, including the Dow 
Chemical Co., did not act with malice when they manufactured and 
distributed chemicals, such as perchloroethylene, to dry cleaners in 
Modesto. That rules out punitive damages, which could have been much 
larger.

....

For the entire article, see
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202430843179&Chemical_Companies_Cleared_in_Calif_Groundwater_Pollution_Case

--


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




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