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Westport sues Monsanto over Middle School PCBs!

Westport has spent almost four million dollars to clean up the PCB’s at the Westport Middle School, and has achieved a 95 percent cleanup. Now they’re being told it will be $17 million to finish the job.

EverythingWestport.com

Sunday, May 04, 2014

The town and the Westport school district have launched a lawsuit against a polychlorinated biphenyls manufacturer in connection with the town's three-year fight to remove PCBs from the middle school.

Westport Community Schools' Superintendent Ann Marie Dargon referred the press to a release from the town and school's lawyer — Malden-based Richard M. Sandman of Rodman, Rodman & Sandman P.C.

The release states that the lawsuit is against the St. Louis, Mo.-based Monsanto Co. and its corporate successors to recover the costs of removing PCBs from the school.

Healey said that the town and schools are looking to recover more than "$3 million and counting." He added that quarterly PCB monitoring alone costs the town $50,000 per year.

Reached Wednesday, Sandman said he feels confident of the town's chances. He said there is evidence from other cases that the company was aware of the health impacts of PCBs and other districts are also dealing with PCB contamination, so Westport is not alone, according to a Fall River Herald article..

"You are going up against a big company. It has its challenges, of course, but we feel good about it," Sandman said.

Sandman said the suit was filed about a week ago in U.S. District court in Boston. He said cases there "move at a good clip" but it could take a few years for the case to be resolved, The Herald said.

Sandman's firm has launched the suit with Scott Summy of Baron & Budd in Dallas, Texas, and Robert Gordon of Weitz & Luxenberg in New York City.

In May 2011, PCBs were first discovered in Westport Middle School at levels that "far exceeded minimal safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency," according to a written release.

The PCBs were discovered during a green energy window-replacement project at the school.

Early last year, selectmen signed a voter-approved loan for $4.3 million to pay for PCB remediation and green repair work at the middle school. The loan carries a 2.78 percent interest rate and will cost the town about $1 million in interest payments.

The Town of Westport and the Westport Community Schools announced in a May 13 press release that it has filed a lawsuit against Monsanto Company, the manufacturer of the building products containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the construction of the Westport Middle School. The town is seeking to recover the costs of removing the PCBs "from school buildings in Westport" where the cancer-causing construction materials were used, said the release issued by Superintendent of Schools Ann Dargon.

In this David vs. Goliath case the stakes couldn’t be much higher.

"This has been a likely scenario from the beginning," Town Administrator Jack Healey said. "As the lawyers say, the town 'would like to be made whole.'"

PCBs are man-made chemicals commonly used from the early 1950s to the late 1970s in numerous industrial and commercial applications in the construction and electrical industries. The PCB-containing materials were used in caulking, insulation, electrical transformers, and florescent light ballasts in thousands of public and commercial buildings throughout the country during that time period, with Monsanto being the only known U.S. manufacturer of the materials.

According to Superintendent Ann Dargon, "The Westport Middle School was completed in 1969, and during its construction, PCB-containing materials, including window and door caulking and light ballasts, were used. PCBs can migrate out of these products and into adjoining masonry, flooring, walls, and soil and can be released into the air causing danger to those who come into contact with it."

The PCBs were first discovered in May 2011 during materials testing conducted as part of a school window replacement project. Tests found PCB levels in the air and on various interior and exterior surfaces "at levels that far exceeded minimal safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)," the superintendent also said in the press release. A school-wide cleaning and remediation effort has already cost the town more than $3 million, and quarterly PCB monitoring is continuing at a cost of about $50,000 per year. Several areas of the building remain off-limits to students who are at the greatest risk from PCB exposure.

The EPA has determined that PCBs are probable human carcinogens, and may have toxic effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems of those with prolonged exposure to the chemicals.

Responding to an inquiry about the lawsuit, Tom Helscher, a spokesman for Monsanto, said the suit is without merit, according to the Fall River Herald.

"When the former Monsanto sold PCBs, they were a useful product. Building materials manufacturers used or otherwise incorporated them into their products," he wrote in an email. "Determining who is responsible and how responsibility is shared among the several manufacturers, school boards, building owners and the public sector will be determined by the rule of law, state by state, as applied to the facts of the case," the Herald reported.

The EPA has determined that Monsanto's PCBs are probable human carcinogens and exert significant toxic effects on the immune system, the reproductive system, the nervous system, and the endocrine system. Students, teachers, administrators, and other individuals who come in regular contact with PCBs at the levels found in the Westport schools may be at an increased risk of contracting these and other serious illnesses. The Town of Westport and Westport Community Schools have asserted in their Complaint that Monsanto had knowledge of the dangers of this product going back decades but failed to warn of its dangers.

Helscher went on to say that PCBs were made by Monsanto Co. in the mid-1900s and used by manufacturers of "hundreds of products for building construction to improve performance and safety."

He said that many building codes required PCBs in electrical equipment in schools, hospitals or buildings, where the risk of fires was a major concern.

He said Monsanto today focuses solely on agriculture, the Herald reported.

"Where Monsanto has been determined to have responsibility relating to PCBs, we've met those obligations and we'll continue to do so," he added.

Monsanto has quite a lot on their plate lately. They are under attack over their GMO (genetically modified organism) products, and has lost several cases, although they have government support.

The two town entities are asserting in their U.S. District Court lawsuit filing that "Monsanto had knowledge of the dangers of this product going back decades but failed to warn of its dangers," the press release concludes. The town is being represented on this matter by Attorney Richard Sandman of Rodman, Rodman, & Sandman, P.C. of Malden, in cooperation with attorneys in Texas and New York on behalf of clients in those states.

A Monsanto spokesman was quoted in the local media as saying the lawsuits were without merit, and that his company was not the only manufacturer of PCBs contained in hundreds of products during the nearly three decades of use. Not long after the discovery of PCBs at WMS, school officials said that testing had been conducted at other schools in town, and had not found any other potential exposure sites in any of the buildings.

"Students, teachers, administrators, and other individuals who come into regular contact with PCBs at the levels found in the Westport schools may be at an increased risk of contracting these and other serious illnesses," according to Ann Marie Dargon, Superintendent of Westport Schools.

EverythingWestport.com