$2.49 Million Water Contamination Settlement
February 10th, 2010
PLAQUEMINE — Attorneys representing more than 4,900 people who resided in or visited Myrtle Grove Trailer Park between 1997 and 2001 have negotiated a settlement worth $2.49 million in a water contamination lawsuit.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit asked that they be paid for personal injuries, wage loss and medical expenses for exposure to vinyl chloride. The chemical is a carcinogen that can cause cancer, damage to the nervous system and liver problems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site.
A. Wilbert and Sons LLC, the owner of Myrtle Grove Trailer Park, which is now closed, and the company’s insurance carrier, Scottsdale Insurance, have agreed jointly to pay $2 million in damages. The state Department of Health and Hospitals has agreed to pay $490,000.
The lawsuit, filed in 18th Judicial Court in Plaquemine, stems from routine testing of a water well near Myrtle Grove conducted by DHH in 1998 and again in 2001. Water from the well was piped throughout the Myrtle Grove trailer park.
Patrick W. Pendley, of Plaquemine, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, said DHH failed to provide adequate warnings to residents of the trailer park after the department found unsafe levels of vinyl chloride in the park’s drinking water in 1998.
In 2001, when DHH tested the trailer park’s drinking water again, Pendley said, DHH sent a letter to trailer park owners A. Wilbert and Sons informing them of the presence of the carcinogen in Myrtle Grove’s drinking water.
After receiving the letter from DHH, A. Wilbert and Sons cut off access to the well and made arrangements for Myrtle Grove’s residents to receive drinking water from the city of Plaquemine’s municipal water source. By then it was too late, Pendley said. “They were drinking (vinyl chloride) for four years by that point,” Pendley said.
About 50 families lived in the trailer park until July 2003, when the owners shut it down due to skyrocketing insurance costs
Dow Chemical, which operates a plant near Myrtle Grove, originally was named in the lawsuit. Those claims against Dow citing the company for personal injuries as a result of the contamination were dismissed without prejudice prior to the settlement. The “without prejudice” distinction leaves the door open for Dow to be held liable for personal injuries in the future. A separate lawsuit naming Dow as the source of the vinyl chloride in Myrtle Grove’s drinking water and seeking money for property damage is still pending in 18th Judicial District Court. That case is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 17. In that case, Pendley said, Dow should be held liable for a large, underground pool of vinyl chloride that has settled under private property in a large portion of Iberville Parish near Dow and Myrtle Grove. Dow has denied the contamination is coming from its operations, and water testing on Dow property backs up that assertion, a company spokesperson said in 2002.
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