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Thursday, June 02, 2011

Environment - More on "Attica pollution lawsuit gains class action status"

Updating this ILB entry from Sept. 29, 2010, Crain's Chicago Business reported on May 24th in a story by Kate MacArthur that begins:

(Crain's) — Kraft Foods Inc. has been ordered by a federal court to pay $8.1 million to 124 families in Attica, Ind., following a class-action lawsuit alleging that one of the foodmaker's factories contaminated air and water inside their homes.

According to the settlement, approved last Friday by a federal judge in Indianapolis, the Northfield-based company also must clean up the plant site and groundwater and install systems to manage the contamination in the affected homes.

The suit was filed in March 2009 by Susan and Patrick Stoll, Mary and Charles Bowles and more than 100 others. In it, they claimed that chemicals including vinyl chloride and trichloroethylene had been spilled at the plant since 1957 and that those chemicals had leaked into the groundwater, seeped into their homes and caused toxic vapors.

Kraft never operated on the site, but acquired it in the 1970s-80s. Kraft is reportedly remediating the site.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 2, 2011 11:59 AM
Posted to Environment