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Monday, February 20, 2006

Environment - Class-action toxic tort lawsuit filed against Alcoa in Warrick Circuit Court

"Ex-miner sues Alcoa over waste: Blames exposure for health problem" is the headline to a long story today by Mark Wilson and Bryan Corbin in the Evansville Courier& Press. Some quotes:

When Bil Musgrave went to work as an equipment operator at Squaw Creek Mine in 1977, he didn't know he also would be helping bury potentially toxic waste.

Now, Musgrave, 50, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Alcoa, alleging exposure to the aluminum company's waste caused him near-fatal health problems, including a rare form of cancer.

His attorneys want the lawsuit to be considered a class-action, and they plan to sign up prospective plaintiffs at a meeting tonight in Warrick County at the United Mine Workers Local 1189 union hall.

Alcoa Warrick Operations contends the waste was legally disposed of throughout the Squaw Creek site near Boonville, Ind., roughly between 1965 and 1979, when environmental and mining regulations were not as strict as they are today. Alcoa drew coal from the mine to power its large aluminum-smelting operation 15 miles away. An Alcoa subsidiary, Alcoa Fuels Inc., owned the Squaw Creek strip mine and used its pits to dispose of Alcoa's industrial wastes after coal was extracted by Peabody Coal Co. in a joint venture.

Musgrave's suit alleges more than 65 million gallons of toxic waste were buried in the mine. Alcoa declines to commit to a specific amount of waste buried there because conflicting figures have been reported over the years. But Alcoa officials contend the health risk to the miners was minimal, based on what they say have been minimal health problems reported by Alcoa's own employees exposed to the same wastes. * * *

Musgrave's attorney, Terry White, said that group could include "several hundred" people: former Peabody miners, independent truck drivers who hauled the waste from the Alcoa plant to the mine, or surrounding landowners. Any who were sickened as a result of the waste could join the class-action suit, he said. Responding to the allegations, Alcoa spokeswoman Sally Rideout Lambert said the disposal of waste in the strip mine was authorized by the state Board of Health, years before the Indiana Department of Environmental Management was created.

"At that point in time, the disposal was perfectly legal and authorized, and we were doing what was standard practice at the time," Lambert said.

Though it wasn't required to, Alcoa recently has worked with the UMW to offer free health screenings of former mine employees, conducted by the University of Cincinnati's Center for Occupational Health, Lambert said. Lambert anticipates results of that medical study will be completed and released in April.

The lawsuit was filed Jan. 6 in Warrick Circuit Court. The suit alleges negligence by Alcoa in dumping the waste and in not warning employees of the hazard, infliction of emotional distress, nuisance and loss of consortium. Named as defendants are Alcoa and its subsidiary, Alcoa Fuels Inc. Peabody is not being sued.

Alcoa hasn't filed a detailed response in court yet, but it has asked to transfer the case from state to federal court. Once venue is determined, a judge will decide whether to certify it as a class-action case. Class actions allow large numbers of people whose cases involve similar legal and factual questions to join in a suit against a large defendant, such as a corporation - and possibly share in any damages or settlement. At the meeting at 6 p.m. today, White will discuss the case.

Here is an Oct. 16, 2005 ILB entry (2nd item) on the health screenings.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 20, 2006 10:58 AM
Posted to Environment