U.S. Water News Online
TOMS RIVER, N.J. -- A class-action lawsuit has been filed against a chemical company blamed by many residents for contaminating drinking water supplies.
The suit, which accuses the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. of polluting local water supplies in the 1960s and 1970s, asks that the company's corporate successors pay punitive damages, compensatory damages, and medical-monitoring expenses for people who drank the water.
Filed in Superior Court, the suit cites a Feb. 29 public-health report that concluded that residents may have been exposed to traces of dye and nitrobenzene from Ciba-Geigy that seeped into three wells used by the Toms River Water Co., which is now known as United Water Toms River.
It names Linda S. Breen of Toms River, George D. Trustin of Forked River, who used to live in Toms River, and Laura Piccirillo of Toms River as plaintiffs and seeks unspecified amounts of compensatory and punitive damages.
All three were "exposed, via ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact, to said contaminants," the suit said, although one of their lawyers acknowledged that none were stricken with cancer or any other illness they blame on the water.
The lawyer, Michael Gordon, said the suit was aimed at getting Ciba to pay for medical monitoring since it is the one responsible for their exposure.
"The Feb. 29 report ... confirmed many of the suspicions and beliefs of many residents of Toms River regarding the role of Ciba-Geigy in the contamination of groundwater, and it is time they are held accountable to the citizens of Toms River for their conduct," said Gordon, one of four attorneys to file the suit on behalf of three individuals who they say represent a class of people harmed by the chemicals.
Officials of Ciba-Geigy Corp., now known as Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., could not be reached for comment.
Organic dyes, epoxy resins, and specialty chemicals were manufactured for nearly 40 years on the site, which was formerly known as Toms River Chemical Co. Solid and liquid waste from the manufacturing was dumped in 20 different places at the site, contaminating soil and groundwater.
Declared a federal Superfund site in 1982, the land has come under increased scrutiny since 1996, when the state revealed an unusually high rate of some childhood cancers in the town.
Between 1979 and 1995, 90 Dover Township children were diagnosed with cancer, or about 23 more than researchers would have expected.
The state is conducting an epidemiological study in hopes of learning whether something in the environment caused the high cancer rates.
That study, which began in March 1996, is being made by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and state health officials. It is examining nearly 200 families -- 40 that have children with cancer.
According to the state's Feb. 29 health assessment, which was conducted as part of the overall study by the state and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, cancer-causing chemicals contaminated drinking water wells in the mid-1960s.
"Although the nature and length of exposures is not known, there is evidence that these wells were contaminated with dyes and nitrobenzene. Dye production involved the use of a number of chemicals, including known and probable human carcinogens," the report said.
Linda Gillick, the mother of one childhood cancer sufferer, told the Asbury Park Press of Neptune that she worries the lawsuit will chill what has been a productive exchange of information between the parties to date.
"I only hope that everything that has been needed in the childhood cancer-cluster investigation from Ciba" has been obtained already, said Gillick, who heads the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster.
A group of 60 Dover Township families has hired lawyer Jan Schlictmann, who won fame representing families in Woburn, Mass., who sued W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods over water contamination. The case was the subject of a best-selling book called A Civil Action, which was made into a movie starring John Travolta.
But the group, which uses the name TEACH -- Toxic Environments Affect Children's Health -- has agreed not to sue Ciba, Union Carbide, or United Water Toms River while the companies and citizens exchange information about the contamination.
Gordon said that in his experience, litigation works better in getting defendants to provide information.
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