|
|
Article: Rising tide of citizen action suits takes on water polluters.
- Article from:
- Trial
- Article date:
- July 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 American Association for Justice, formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA®). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
In May, six residents of the small fishing village of Kivalina, Alaska, settled a lawsuit with Teck Cominco, a mining company based in Vancouver, Canada. The lawsuit alleged that Teck Cominco's Red Dog Mine, one of the country's biggest zinc mines, violated the Clean Water Act by dumping illegal amounts of waste into the Wulik River, which the villagers used for drinking water and subsistence fishing. (Adams v. Teck Cominco Alaska, Inc., No. 3:04-CV-00049-JWS (D. Alaska settled May 14, 2008).)
Citizen lawsuits against polluters are not new, but they are rising in number along with the growing awareness of environmental concerns. One reason is that when it comes ...