Last TCE settlement going to plaintiffs
by Blake Morlock on Jun. 09, 2006, under LocalS. Side case, begun in ’81, has already netted $130M through suits
They were told when they started getting sick that it was because of the chilies and beans they ate.
Rose Augustine remembers how bureaucrats told neighbors in a largely Hispanic South Side community they were getting sick because of their ethnicity, not because of an industrial solvent contaminating their water.
“They tried to put the blame on the community that’s affected,” she said.
After 25years of lawsuits, settlements, appeals and judgments in their favor, Augustine and 1,600 others who sued over trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination will be presented with a deal to end the litigation that netted them and their lawyers more than $130 million.
Hughes Aircraft and the city of Tucson were accused of dumping TCE in the water table for 29 years, beginning in 1952. A lawsuit against the city was settled in 1981 for $31 million, and in 1991 a suit against Hughes Aircraft was settled for $84.5 million.
Plaintiffs have received payments from Hughes, but three city insurance companies claimed they weren’t liable. Two have since settled.
A deal to end the last lawsuit will be presented to the plaintiffs this weekend at Sunnyside High School. The plaintiffs must agree to the deal, which their attorney won’t discuss yet publicly.
TCE’s legacy is still a burden to those who believe they were afflicted by the contamination.
“The only ones who have closure are the ones in the cemetery,” Augustine said. “For the families? No. We have to live with the consequences.”
The cases proved to be a catalyst that moved neighborhoods to political action but taught Augustine a hard lesson about civics.
“I didn’t believe there were chemicals in the water,” she said. “I trusted our government. That was a mistake.”
Once TCE stories were reported in the local media, Augustine started to take action. Since 1985, the TCE battle has consumed her life. She’s traveled the country to talk to others worried about groundwater contamination and testified before Congress.
TCE was used as an industrial solvent at Tucson International Airport and by Hughes Aircraft from 1952 to 1981, according to records. It drained into ponds and culverts on the South Side and percolated into the area’s wells.
Some estimates showed contamination 1,000 times the federal health standard.
A lot of sick neighbors proved to Augustine what science hadn’t – that TCE can break down the immune system and lead to a variety of illnesses.
Once she got into the TCE fight, she became a leader, and people approached her with horror stories.
“A mother came up to me once and said, ‘I’ve had five children, and three died in my arms. Could it be the water?’” Augustine said. “I about cried.”
The TCE cases mobilized the South Side and gave it power it never had before, said Richard Gonzales, one of the three lead attorneys on the case.
“I remember growing up on the South Side. We never had any political muscle and never exercised a voice in government,” Gonzales said. “There was an entrenched sense that the South Side was powerless to look out for their interests.”
City Councilman Steve Leal’s district includes much of the affected area, and he said the empowerment came at a price.
“It was a painful way that social and economic justice issues got articulated in Tucson.”
