Subject: PANUPS Pesticide Makers will pay

From: Pesticide Action Network North America Reg Ctr <[email-masked]>
Date: 05 Mar 93 14:58 PST

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PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA UPDATES SERVICE
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Pesticide Makers Will Pay to Clean Town's Water

March 5, 1993

	On February 24, the city council of Sanger, CA agreed to settle a 
lawsuit against three former manufacturers of the pesticide DBCP out 
of court for $25 million.  The Fresno County town filed the lawsuit 
against Shell Oil Co,. Dow Chemical Co., and Occidental Chemical Co. 
to cover the costs of removing DBCP from its water system. 
	The Sanger settlement may well influence the outcome of 
similar suits filed by other California cities, including Fresno, Modesto, 
Lodi, and Dinuba.  The basic claim of all these lawsuits is that 
manufacturers knew, or should have known from studies conducted 
in the 1960s and 70s, that DBCP could cause cancer and sterility, and 
that it would seep through sandy soils and into aquifers below the 
Central Valley.  
	According to Duane Miller, an attorney for some of the towns 
suing the pesticide manufacturers, "This is the first time in the country 
that cities have sued for contamination of public drinking water 
attributable to normal farming operations."  Traditionally, water 
suppliers have inherited responsibility for cleaning up such 
contamination.  The total price tag for removing enough DBCP from 
Central Valley water supplies to meet current state standards is 
estimated at over $600 million.  (The maximum level of DBCP allowed 
in California drinking water is 0.2 parts per billion.)
	The judge in the Sanger trial, which began in San Francisco 
Superior Court in January 1993, indicated that the three companies 
would be liable for punitive damages, creating a strong incentive for 
them to settle to avoid paying potentially vast damages.  Ten million 
dollars of the settlement amount will pay for construction and 
operation of water filtration systems and development of new wells as 
the city grows; the $15 million balance will go to the city and its 
attorneys.  If $10 million proves inadequate to cover the water system 
costs, the companies have agreed to provide additional funds.
	DBCP was widely used as a nematicide (to kill nematodes, small 
worms in the soil) in the U.S. until it was virtually banned in 1979, 
following revelations that 35 workers in an Occidental formulation 
plant had been sterilized by their exposure to DBCP (use on pineapples 
in Hawaii was allowed until 1985; now all uses are banned in the U.S.)  
Dow and Shell company scientists had apparently known at least since 
the 1960s that the pesticide was a testicular toxin, but had suppressed 
the information.  DBCP is also a potent carcinogen, and can cause 
numerous acute and chronic health effects.
	Dow and Shell are also defendants in lawsuits filed on behalf of 
Costa Rican banana plantation workers sterilized by exposure to DBCP 
(U.S. exports continued after the virtual ban in 1979).  In the summer 
of 1992, almost 1000 Costa Rican workers were forced to settle out of 
court due to legal technicalities, for amounts much lower than those 
received by U.S. workers in similar cases (see PANUPS 9/24/92).

Sources:  San Francisco Chronicle, 3/1/93; San Francisco Examiner, 
2/25/93; PANUPS 9/24/92; Dirty Dozen Pesticide Fact Sheets; California 
Department of Health Services; Cindy Hoopes, Fresno Valley Action 
Network (VAN); 

Contact:  Cindy Hoopes, VAN, P. O. Box 5135, Fresno, California 93755 
USA; phone (209) 222-7796.

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This information is provided by the Pesticide Action Network North 
America Updates Service (PANUPS), a pesticide-related news service 
from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North American Regional 
Center. Updates are posted weekly on EcoNet in "en.pesticides," 
"en.agriculture" and other appropriate electronic conferences, and 
distributed worldwide across the APC computer network. PANUPS is 
also posted in the Public Conference on RTK NET, on GeoNet in the 
PESTICIDES-BBS bulletin board, on FidoNet in The Ecology Network, 
on the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SANET) on BitNet, and on 
PENpages agriculture information service at Penn State Univ. Hard-
copy compilations of these updates are also available. For more 
information about PAN activities and publications, contact: PAN NA 
RC, 965 Mission Street #514, San Francisco, CA 94103. Tel: (415) 541-
9140. Fax: (415) 541-9253. Telex: 156283472 PANNA. E-mail address on 
EcoNet: [email-masked]
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