Document 2RqDjN4naBYzo769w7YQwdqeR

CMM'.MK) SUM-TIMES rn:-'M WAR 1 8 1978 Waukegan firm hit by $20 million suit for lake pollution By Dennis D. Fishor The Justice Department Friday hntr*t MnHm forp. for |20 minimi in t'.S. 'DiairTi I t oun, charging the onrbwrrf-matar manufacturer with discharging 2 million pounds of poisonous pCbs into Waukegno Harbor and Lake Michigan over the last II years. The federal complaint charged that PCB residues make up as much at 25 per rent of the bottom sediments in Waukegan harbor and so-called "North Diich," both of which empty into tin* lke. Asst. U S. Atty. Thomas C. Dent said tha lawsuit seeks penalties of mom than 920 mil lion Against the firm. The tuatirc Department asked the court to order the company to dean up the bottom accumulation of PCBe -- polychlorinated biphenyls -- after determining how it can be dredged up without aggravating the problem. The suit contends Outboard Marine's dis charge of KB fluid stas "it such greatly con cernroted levels ss to represent a serious threat to drinking wattr. aquatic lire and oilier uses" of the harbor and Lake Michigan. The Justice Department mnintewed thut thu "accumulated lewis of PCH's In bottom sediments . . . present a serious hnmrrf in the environment and the public health and amounts to a public nuisance." OuDmsud Marine has acknowledged (hot PCB's used in the hydraulic fluid for dic-cnsl ing machines between IH59 and 1572 were dbtc Inu red into (lie harbor and ditch, According t thv U.S. Environmental Protection Agencv. Hie company, under prsssure from EPA of ficials, closed all its discharge pipes in the last two years. However, it hot a*kod the slate LIM for permission to dump a concen tration of up to 10 parts per billion from a newly constructed discharge pipe. Waukegan Harbor already is the most PC^ polluted part of the Great Lakes, according ts federal LPA officials. PUB's have become global pollutants. They are showing up in mother's milk and in the body fat of Americans. In experiments, they liave been found to cause Uver cancer and miscarriages in laboratory animals. HONS 001859