Representative Cases: Toxic Tort
Predicting Hexavalent Chromium Emissions from Vintage Cooling Towers
PG&E owned and operated three gas compressor stations in southern California – at Hinkley, Topock and Kettleman. Cooling towers were needed at each station to maintain the temperatures of the heat exchangers used to compress the natural gas. PG&E had added hexavalent chromium to the cooling tower water to control corrosion of the heat exchangers. Due to the design and operation of a cooling tower, small droplets of water containing hexavalent chromium were emitted from the stack of each tower. In addition, water containing hexavalent chromium was removed from each tower on a daily basis and stored in unlined evaporation ponds, which allowed for leaching of hexavalent chromium into the ground water.
Our client represented residents living adjacent to each of the three gas compressor stations who were allegedly exposed to hexavalent chromium via the groundwater and the atmosphere. M&A was retained by the plaintiffs to investigate the maintenance and operation of the cooling towers and the waste disposal practices, and to determine emissions of hexavalent chromium to the environment. We reconstructed annual hexavalent chromium emissions from each cooling tower to the air and the ponds using generally-accepted methodologies, and data obtained from company documents, peer-reviewed publications, handbooks and manuals. We also provided expert opinions indicating that PG&E did not meet the industry standard of care for use and disposal of hexavalent chromium in the cooling towers based on industry practices, company policies, and historical regulations. M&A provided deposition testimony; the case settled prior to trial.
Evaluating Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Contamination in Anniston, Alabama
Monsanto manufactured PCBs at an industrial facility in Anniston, Alabama. The company disposed of solid wastes containing PCBs in dump sites, and liquid wastes through wastewater discharges to a tributary of Choccolocco Creek. The Creek ultimately discharged to Lake Logan Martin. In the 1990s, the widespread PCB contamination in the surrounding Anniston neighborhoods and in the sediments and fish along the Creek and in the Lake were discovered.
Our clients, representing different groups of plaintiffs in Anniston, retained M&A to investigate company practices concerning the manufacture and release of PCBs from the Monsanto facility. After conducting a thorough document search from over a million pages of discovery documents, we provided expert opinions on probable emissions sources and that Monsanto did not exercise reasonable care in the production, handling and disposal of PCBs based on company policies, industry practices, and historical regulations. Relying on generally-accepted methodologies obtained from peer-reviewed literature, M&A reconstructed PCB emissions to the air, water, and soil during the period of Monsanto’s PCB manufacturing operations. M&A gave deposition testimony and/or trial testimony in a number of cases in state court that settled or received a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. M&A also presented its findings at the PCB Workshop in Brno, Czech Republic in 2002 and the PCB Workshop in Visby, Sweden in 2010.
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