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Case ID: 3513 | Environmental | 06/29/2004
A class action has been filed against St. Joe Paper Company and its successor, The St. Joe Company, on behalf of the residents of Millview, a neighborhood in the panhandle town of Port St. Joe, Florida. The suit alleges that the companies knowingly exposed the plaintiffs to hazardous substances. The suit seeks monetary compensation for property damage and health monitoring.
Named plaintiff Gus Miller, a St. Joe paper mill employee for more than 30 years, alleges that the St. Joe Land and Development Company developed Millview in the 1960s, on top of a toxic waste dump. In the 1940s, '50s and '60s, the St. Joe Paper Company filled in wetlands north of the railroad tracks with boiler ash and lime grits, byproducts of paper-making. Wood chips and other waste were dumped there as well. The debris was covered with dirt, creating a 15-block neighborhood that is literally “across the tracks.” Picket fences there now jut at odd angles, and lawns rise and fall like the nearby waters of St. Joseph Bay, due to the unevenly settling wastes underlying the neighborhood. Not so coincidentally, the land development company was a subsidiary of the paper company, and sold the lots to black mill workers and their families. Soil tests in the neighborhood by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have shown higher-than-normal concentrations of lead, dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Dioxin and PCBs are known cancer-causing agents. Even low lead levels can affect learning and development. Higher levels damage kidneys, nerves, blood and the digestive system. An independent survey also found harmful levels of arsenic. Despite the tests, officials with EPA and the Florida Department of Health say they found no evidence of an imminent health threat from the waste under Millview. The St. Joe Company is the largest private landowner in Florida. The company develops residential and commercial real estate in North Florida. Home sites at its communities can cost as much as $1 million. For decades, Millview residents have believed there was something unhealthy about their community. Miller's father died of stomach cancer. His mother fell dead on her porch after coming home from work. Miller is not sure what caused her death. The Reverend Rawlis Leslie, who grew up in Millview and leads a church there, lost a leg to bone cancer in 1972, according to the lawsuit. Linda Tschudi, another longtime resident, had a miscarriage at full term in 2002. She has a small child who is suffering from health problems of unknown origins.
At Lawcash.com, it is our goal to keep you informed about important legal cases, class actions and settlements. Our lawyers offer free legal evaluations in tort cases, class actions, personal injury, and other lawsuits because we are dedicated to helping you resolve your legal complaints. Other Environmental Cases of Interest Several class actions have been filed in Louisiana by residents of Tangipahoa Parish seeking damages resulting from the October 12, 2002, derailment of a Canadian National Railway train and subsequent release of toxic chemicals. Kahn Gauthier Swick is interested in speaking with anyone affected by the explosion on an oil rig that occurred on April 18, 2006, about 45 miles southeast of New Orleans.
Ground water contamination by industrial waste is a topic of growing concern these days. The class has been certified in an action filed against Conoco, Inc., Agrico Chemical Company, and Escambia Treating Company, Inc., on behalf of all persons who own or owned real property in Pensacola, Florida between 1957 and the present. Though persons who are eligible to participate in the action need do nothing at the present time to maintain their status, they should contact class counsel to assure that they are registered. More than 40 Mohawks filed a class action lawsuit in late November against General Motors Corp. and Alcoa Inc., who claim for years have dumped polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, into the river that flows through their territory.
The 44 named plaintiffs are all residents of Akwesasne, a reservation that straddles the U.S.-Canada border in northern New York state. The men, women and children named in the suit allege that they've suffered disease, illness or other ailments caused primarily by consuming fish contaminated with PCBs. Vinyl Chloride is a highly toxic substance: by the time it can be smelled, it is at levels 3,000 times higher than EPA safety standards allow-- it is associated with degenerative bone disease and fatal cancer. Plant workers, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) fabricators, railroad and transportation workers, and beauticians who worked prior to 1974 are most likely to have been exposed; exposure may also come through contaminated drinking water or living near an area where PVC is manufactured, loaded, or unloaded. If you or a loved one might have been exposed to this highly toxic chemical, please contact Kahn Gauthier for more information. Accoring to a complaint filed September 28 in Illinois, oil companies tricked Congress into passing dangerous amendments to the Clean Air Act 15 years ago.
The Illinois attorney that filed the proposed class action suit claims that Shell Oil, Exxon and Mobil persuaded Congress to adopt a new recipe for gasoline although the oil companies knew an ingredient would contaminate groundwater. |
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