Document 85E93KQ3oQe4GMggMj7o1DORd

\ , * / *T sT r fT f KNUARY 25, 1992 A^lT 29* r Company Settles Lawsuit Over Exposure to Dioxin ore 1 3o < ( O o1v OV L ( Diamond Shamrock Will Pay $1 Million By JOSEPH F. SULLIVAN Specll to The New York Time* When dioxin contamination was found at the site of the former plant at NEWARK, Jan. 24 --The Diamond Shamrock Company, which for years has fought claims that It recklessly 80 Lister Street in the city's industrial Ironbound section in 1983, Gov. Thom as H. Kean declared a state of emer endangered the health of workers and residents near a former herbicide gency and visited the area to calm residents' fears. plant by exposing them to dioxin, has agreed to a $1 million settlement. But those fears lingered, and later intensified after workers in protec The settlement came unexpectedly tive suits began digging up contami Thursday during the seventh week of nated soil and vacuuming dirt from a trial before Judge Leo Yanoff of gutters and around storm drains. Superior Court. Lawyers for the com Residents also became concerned pany and for 72 plaintiffs, including over reports that during the 1960's, residents of the area, families of for some plant workers had been treated mer workers and contractors who worked at the site, said they were at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey for chlor- satisfied with the settlement, even acne, a skin rash associated with though the case fell short of proving a link between dioxin and health prob lems among the workers. In reaching the settlement, Dia-1 dioxin. Dioxin levels of up to 51,000 parts per billion were found at the site. At the time, the Federal Environmental mond Shamrbck did not admit to any liability. Protection Agency had established one part per billion as a safe level of " We feel very good" about the out come, said George McCarter, a law yer for the company. He said that Melvin Belli, whose law firm was part The lingering effectstylor Ihe New York Time of the team that represented the plaintiffs, "had demanded $84 million in damages in 1988, so you can draw of contamination in e p a r t m e n t , J o h n your own conclusions about how we f o r t h e a u t h o r i t y , feel." Newark are debated. Rulings Against Plaintiffs t Michael Gordon, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, called the Harbor - -- ---- e civil suits asked C V ` ire the bankruptcy m> 3 * penalties on the ;" 1 nd Borough Presi- mm -- In a ri, s a id th e th e : ' i 'ed his borough. agreement "a decent settlement." He said the settlement was accepted in part because Judge Yanoff barred lawsuits against Diamond Shamrock by workers who had shared in a $1.6 dioxin contamination in soil. Expo sure to anything higher over a life time could lead to one cancer death per million population, according to the agency. million settlement against a doctor who had treated them. But Mr. Gordon said he "was disap pointed" that Judge Yanoff had said that he would bar the Jury from con sidering punitive damages against the company if the plaintiffs had won. Mr. McCarter said that although 72 , The issue of dioxin's toxicity is being re-examined by the agency in the wake of claims by some experts that exposure to low levels of the chemical is not nearly as dangerous as once believed. Plan to Bury Barrels ( (* ^ it, p r e s i d e n t o f t h e j, said he did not ' e in running the two plaintiffs were left in the case at its Although no link was established close, about 100 people will share in between dioxin and the workers' the settlement. Some workers who health problems, Mr. Gordon said p r e s s e d s u r p r i s e at still had appeals pending in the courts that he was able to prove that the id the legal actio y Mr. Molinari, tative. " It's a sui in New Jersey." will receive part of the settlement in "company knew about the dangers of return for agreeing not to press their dioxin in 1957 and what it could do to claims. eliminate it from the manufacturing The dioxin contamination was a process and it did nothing about it." byproduct of Agent Orange, a defoli "And if it's so safe," he asked, ant used in Vietnam that was manu "why has the company said the con factured at the Diamond Alkali plant taminated soil that is contained in 900 In Newark from 1951 to 1969. The barrels still sitting on the site can't be company later merged with the moved anywhere in the world?" Shamrock Oil and Gas Company to The state plans to bury the barrels form Diamond Shamrock, which is and build a slurry wall around the site now the Maxus Energy Corporation to prevent the chemical from leach-