Attorney condemns corporate polluters in campus speech

Dan Kampner Arizona Daily Wildcat Attorney Jan Schlichtmann speaks about a groundbreaking civil case last night in the Arizona Ballroom. Schlichtmann defended eight Massachusetts families who alleged corporate pollution contributed to their children's deaths.

Attorney Jan Schlichtmann told the story of eight Woburn, Mass., families who fought two major corporations in a 9-year court battle to about 100 people in the University of Arizona's Memorial Student Union Arizona Ballroom.

"They were literally choking to death on the lies and they were in desperate need of the truth," Schlichtmann said. "It was hard to say 'no' to people like this."

Schlichtmann's story was made into a book, A Civil Action, by Jonathan Harr, and a movie version starring actor John Travolta will be released in December.

Focusing on the importance of truth in the legal system, Schlichtmann described the difficulties he encountered in representing the families, whose children died from diseases such as leukemia after drinking from a contaminated well. He repre-sented the families in a suit against two major companies that tainted the town's water supply.

W.R. Grace chemical manufacturers and Beatrice Foods production plants were responsible for dumping waste that seeped into the town's water supply, leaving problems for both the living and the unborn, Schlichtmann said.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) stood up before them and said, 'We did the test and the water is contaminated'," Schlichtmann said. "This wasn't satisfying - they wanted to have answers to their questions."

He said agency data showed that the children of women who drank the water during pregnancy had a 14 times greater chance of contracting leukemia than those who were not exposed.

When W.R. Grace was indicted by the grand jury for lying to the EPA, Schlichtmann said it was the first time a Fortune Magazine top 500 company was indicted.

To get the facts, residents put together a grass-roots, private health study and then the families found Schlichtmann.

"The families were people who didn't like to take no for an answer," he said. "In this journey, we had to fight. We had to wage war."

The war, Schlichtmann said, ended after a 9-year, multimillion dollar fight with the two corporations. Now the companies are responsible for a $70 million, 60-year cleanup of the damage.

Peter Grace of the W.R. Grace company was fired and later died of leukemia.

Schlichtmann said the American civil justice system is flawed.

"As a matter of fact, the civil justice system, I hate to break it to you, is more 'system' than 'civil' or 'just,' " he said. "It's coercive, it's punitive ... and it's also dishonest."

David J. Cieslak can be reached via e-mail at David.J.Cieslak@wildcat.arizona.edu.