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Monday, November 13, 2006

Ind. Courts "Former miners suing Alcoa"

The Princeton Daily Clarion is reporting, in a story by Nathan Blackford:

BOONVILLE-Former miners and their families have alleged for nearly three years that waste dumped at the Squaw Creek Mine north of Boonville was the cause of a multitude of physical ailments. Now, 41 people - mostly miners and their spouses - have filed suit asking for damages from the mine's owner, Alcoa.

Starting in 1965, Alcoa disposed of various waste materials into open pits at Squaw Creek, including hexavalent chromium sludge and coal tar pitch. There are at least 12 identified waste disposal sites in the north field of the Squaw Creek Mine.

The former miners contend that the waste was toxic and that Alcoa knew or should have known the danger the material posed to those who worked near it. The suit asks for unspecified monetary damages from Alcoa for negligence, infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium.

The suit was filed Oct. 23 in Warrick County Circuit Court. Attorney Peter Racher of the Indianapolis law firm Plews, Shadley, Racher and Braun is representing the plaintiffs.

“We feel very, very strongly that a responsible company would have exposed wastes of these types to a vulnerable population,” said Racher. “No one informed (the plaintiffs) that working with hexavalent chromium was harmful to human skin or human organs. No one told them that coal tar pitch contains many substances known or suspected of being human carcinogens.” * * *

But Alcoa says - as it has contended from the beginning - that the materials are not toxic and did not cause the health problems the miners have had.

“We've believed all along, and according to the information we've had, that those materials would not result in health impacts,” said Alcoa spokesperson Sally Rideout-Lambert. “These are not the type of materials that would cause these health problems.”

Racher disagrees.

“That is a very controversial position that Alcoa takes,” said Racher. “We think that the science had been in place for decades about the adverse human health impacts associated with the substances that were disposed of at the mine. And Alcoa knew that the people who would come in contact with these substances were untrained and unprotected.”

Racher said the Material Safety Data sheets concerning coal tar pitch and hexavalent chromium sludge predict that chronic exposure to the materials will produce exactly the kinds of health effects suffered by the former miners. * * *

In May 2005, Alcoa set up a health screening program for the miners through the University of Cincinnati Center for Occupational Health. The final results of that study are not complete.

Mining ended in the north field at Squaw Creek in 1987, and the mine stopped all production in 1998. A 2004 report from the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management indicates that the waste material has not moved or become a health hazard.

Another former miner, Bil Musgrave, filed a similar lawsuit against Alcoa in February, but that case has been delayed in federal court.

Racher said that the most recent suit, which is not a class-action, would be able to remain in Warrick County courts.

This ILB entry from Feb. 20, 2006 concerns the Musgrave suit; this one from Oct. 16, 2005, concerns the health screenings.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 13, 2006 07:01 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts