Plaintiffs v Cecos Hazardous Waste Site
Class Action OKd For Cecos Hazardous Waste Site
A judge has ruled that plaintiffs have proven that vapors migrated from the Cecos hazardous waste site, which operated until 1990, and caused hundreds of complaints.
A six-mile radius from the Cecos epicenter is appropriate in the class certification of the lawsuit against the firm, according to the ruling by state District Judge Ernest Drake, of 21st Judicial District Court.
A class action is certified for all those living within the defined radius of a six-mile circumference from the Cecos site between the years of 1977 and 1990, Drake said in his ruling filed last week in the Clerk of Courts Office.
That will be thousands of people, said Baton Rouge attorney Lewis Unglesby. He and Calvin Fayard represent the plaintiffs.
Ownership of Cecos has moved through a chain of companies and now is in the hands of Republic Waste.
In his findings of fact, Drake said Cecos operated a land farm that accepted indiscriminate hazardous waste with 15 or more storage pits operating at any given time.
The customary method of handling the hazardous waste was to dump the materials into an open pit and then mix the hazardous waste with either fly ash or kiln dust in the open air environment, Drake said in his findings of fact.
Witnesses in the area surrounding the Cecos facility complained of and identified clouds of dust, vapors and odors consistent with testimony by site workers, the judge said.
The expert witness for both the plaintiff and the defendant agreed that the materials handled were capable of aggravating preexisting respiratory problems and causing upper respiratory distress, including dizziness, coughing, running eyes, nasal congestion and nausea, Drake found.
The chemicals could travel some distance and be capable of causing health effects, he said.
Air modeling indicates migration of some of the components as far as 20 or 30 miles to the south and southwest, and more than 600 documented odor complaints were made within a six-mile radius of the facility, the judge found.
Scientific testimony and lay testimony support the finding that the Cecos facility was the cause of complaints, Drake said.
For more information please contact:
Lewis Unglesby
Unglesby & Marionneaux
Email: TrialsAndAppeals@BellSouth.net
Phone: (225) 387-0120
Fax: (225) 336-4355
Address:
246 Napoleon Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
