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fiSABT, GA. KERAtD C. 31.CS3
OCT 211976 ^
l GEHit WithAnotherDamage Suit
ROME, Ga. (AP) - General Electric, which already faces
a $500 million damage suit Sled by angry property owners, now most contend
with another suit alleging that the company has hurt
recreational income and land values by polluting the Coosa River.
A $510,000 federal damage suit was filed Wednesday against GE by two north Geor* gia property owners.
Georgia and Alabama property owners last month
filed a $500 million damage suit against GE and Monsanto. Co., which manufactures poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
The latest suit contends GE "either willfully, wantonly,
negligently or recklessly allowed PCBs to enter Lake Weiss end other waters."
GE has s plant near Rome that uses PCBs in manufac turing electric transformers.
Health authorities say PCBs
can cause sUn eruptions, ex
cessive eye discharges sn pos
sibly cancer in humans.
Hie suit. filed Wednesday
was brought by Lester Lindsey
Jr. of Rome, operator of the
Coosa Hunting and Fishing
Lodge on the Coosa River, and
D r. Richard Jewell of Cedartown, owner of property
on Alabama's Lake Weiss, into
which the Coosa flows.
The state has closed the
Coosa River to commercial
fishing,
tig the
were contaminated by PCBs apparently discharged by the GE plant. Fishing is not re*
stricted on Lake Weiss. Similar restrictions have
been put on fishing is Lake Hartwell on the Georgia-South ; Carolina border, and property | owners there have filed a It : billion damage suit against the j Sangamo Electric Co. plant In I Pickens, S.C., and Monsanto j