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Anne and Charles Anderson move to Woburn
Anne and Charles Anderson move out of Boston to the quaint, rural town of east Woburn. They are able to buy their house for $17,900 and soon start a family.
(Harr) -
Centers for Disease Control investigation
Doctor Truman is contacted by Reverend Young who presents him with a map informing him on the amount of leukemia cases that have occurred in east Woburn. Truman asks Dr. Clark Heath from CDC to help in investigating these leukemia clusters in Woburn. This then leads to the city obtaining help from the CDC and the Massachusetts Department of Health, whom interviewed both the families of each leukemia-affected child and families that were similar to them but not affected by leukemia.
(Harr 41, 44) -
Families of Leukemia Victims Meet
This was the first time that all of the Woburn families with children diagnosed with leukemia met. The event was run by Reverend Young and Anne Anderson who had a hunch that their were many more cases of leukemia in Woburn than in other areas. This meeting had over 13 families attend.
(Woburn Trial)
Picture- Trinity Church, Woburn MA -
Jan Schlichtman Meets with Woburn Families
The families orginally met with a different lawyer, Mulligan, but Jan Schlichtman meets with the families on his behalf. This is the start of Schlichtman's involvment in the case as he agrees to represent the Woburn families in their case against Beatrice and W.R. Grace.
(Woburn Trial)
Picture- Jan Schlichtman -
Woburn Families complaint
The families in Woburn, whom had kids with leukemia, were finally able to file a complaint with the help of Schlichtmann. This complaint acused both W.R. Grace and Beatric Foods of dumping dangerous chemicals in the water supplied to the wells and to the citizens of Woburn. They lawsuit also blamed these companies for ultimatley causing leukemia in many of Woburn's children.
(SeattleU) -
W. R. Grace Invokes Rule 11
The lawyers representing W. R. Grace led by William Cheeseman invoke Rule 11 which states that cases based on frivolous arguments or presented without factual evidence be thrown out. Judge Skinner declines the request.
(Woburn Trial) -
Period: to
Depositions
Richard Aufiero, Paul Shalline, Thomas Barbas, and Al Love have their depositions, lawyers from both W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods are present in the depositions. Al Love discloses lots of infromation on the dumping of dangerous chemicals by the tannery he worked in. After him, some of his coworkers chose to tell the truth.
(Harr 149-193) -
Division of the Trial
First day of Pre-trial conference, Judge Skinner announces intent to divide the trial into separate phases, the first phase requiring demonstration of the defendants contamination of the Wells.
(Woburn Trial)
Picture- Judge Skinner -
Judge Skinner Rules on Part 1
Judge Skinner gives a word questonaire to the jury regarding the timing the contamination of wells G and H and the identity of the contaminants. By July 28th the jury reaches a decision and Judge Skinner aquits Beatrice and finds W.R. Grace potentially liable.
(Woburn Trial) -
A Settlement is Reached
W.R. Grace reaches a settlement with Schlichtman for the eight families to recieve about $8 million jointly. At least half of the money was expected to go to legal expenses and fees, so the families ended up receiving not much more than $300,000.
(Woburn Trial) -
Period: to
Plantiffs Appeal Against Beatrice
The Woburn families decide to appeal the judges decision about Beatrice, leading to a series of denials and appeals that eventually ends in 1990, when the Court of Appeals denies the families request for the case to be re-heard.
(Woburn Trial) -
EPA, Consent Decree
The EPA negotiated with Unifirst Corporation, W.R. Grace Company, New England Plastics and Wildwood Conservation to construct a remedy for each of their properties. Since then, over 540 million gallons groundwater and 200 tons of contaminated soil have been treated from this Consent Decree. -
EPA Reaches Settlement
The EPA finalizes a $69.5 million settlement with W.R. Grace, Beatrice, UniFirst and Riley's tannery for the cleanup of Wells G & H, the Superfund site. The EPA was able to succeed using new research on the chemicals that were found in the area and as with new evidence that incrimidated the companies of knowingly contaminating the land.
(Woburn Trial)
Picture- EPA logo -
March 2003, EPA Negotiated OAC
The EPA negotiated an Administrative Order by Consent (OAC) with the Olympia Nominee Trust source area property for the cleanup of the soil in the area west of the river which was contaminated with PCB. Fifteen months later the EPA negotiated another AOC with the same group regarding the cleanup of soil which was previously contanimated with TCE. This process is done by injecting sodium permanganate (NaMnO4) into the soil -
EPA, Industri-plex OU-2 Record of Decision
The EPA prepared and released Industri-plex OU-2 Record of Decision. The major components of this decision are as follows: Dredging near shore sediments at wells G&H will take place, use of the HBHA Pond as a sediment retention area to protect from contaminated groundwater plumes, the construction of a permeable cap to prevent soil erosion and the long-term monitoring of groundwater and surface water. -
EPA, Southwest Properties Baseline Risks Assessment
The EPA released the Southwest Properties Baseline Risk Assessment (Southwest BRA) which summarized the risks and potential causes of these risks in Woburn, MA. Included in this long list of contaminants is TCE, Vinyl Chloride and 1,1,2-Trichloroethane all which are hazardous the humans who consume them. -
EPA, Shallow Groundwater Results
The EPA released the “shallow groundwater” results and recommended additional sampling of the air in several buildings which were in close proximity to UniFirst and WR Grace Source Area properties to test for intrusive vapors that may be harmful. In 2012 it was determined that no such vapor intrusion had occured. -
Woburn Current Progress
As of January 5th, 2015 the UniFirst and W.R. Grace source area properties are in their eighteenth year of groundwater treatment using carbon adsorption methods. -
Works Cited
Group 3 - Kate, Riley, and Zareli
In the 1900's the people of Woburn, Massachusetts suffered a big contamination to some of their water supply, which then was found to have caused many cases of leukemia. This timeline focuses on the city's case and all the legal aspects that came about from this harmful pollution.
References
