Homeowners Sue Firms for Fouled Water Wells
Plastics News
March 18, 1996
A Superfund cleanup site in Sag Harbor is the source of a $200
million lawsuit brought by 33 homeowners against Nabisco Inc., which
once manufactured motorized plastic toy cars at a plant on the property.
The homeowners, represented by Great Neck, N.Y., law firm Parker
& Waichman, are seeking damages resulting from the alleged dumping
of toxic solvents used to clean the cars' metal motors. The civil
suit, filed in Suffolk County court March 6, names Nabisco, Rowe
Industries Inc., Sag Harbor Industries Inc. and A.U. Products Corp.,
also known as Aurora Plastics, as defendants, said Jerrold Parker,
a lawyer at Parker Waichman Alonso LLP.
Rowe and Aurora are defunct companies that consecutively owned
the plant and property before Nabisco bought them in the early 1970s,
according to Environmental Protection Agency records.
In 1980, the site was sold to Sag Harbor Industries, a family-owned
firm that makes electronic devices.
Nabisco spokeswoman Caro-line Fee confirmed the civil suit, but said the Parsippany, N.J.-based company had no comment on it.
In 1984, EPA uncovered groundwater tainted with tetrachloro-ethene
and trichloroethene, which originated from the solvents Rowe, then
later Aurora, used to degrease its small, oil-coated metal motors
for the electric cars, said Pamela Tames, EPA project manager. Those
solvents had been stored both in dry wells and in drums that leaked,
she said.
Parker said most of Sag Harbor's homeowners have wells, which were
contaminated along with the aquifer that feeds them. For the most
part, his clients are seeking property damages, but ''some people
are claiming personal injury,'' he said by phone March 11. He declined
to provide details.
Tames called Sag Harbor a ''fairly rural'' area. Under an EPA Superfund agreement, Nabisco and Sag Harbor Industries designed a cleanup plan that Nabisco will begin implementing in April.
About 6,000 people within a 3-mile radius of the site use groundwater as their primary source of drinking water, EPA said.
