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Trial opens in tainting of homes’ well water; Santa Rosa residents blame railroad, OCLI; companies blame dry cleaners

Posted by: Maven on June 6, 2009 at 6:10 am

From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

Several Santa Rosa residents faced off in court this week against Union Pacific Railroad and JDS Uniphase, companies they contend tainted their wells with potentially cancer-causing chemicals. “The evidence will show how their business practices contaminated the environment, how it contaminated the ground water and how it entered the defendants’ wells,” attorney Joseph Gonzalez of Westlake Village said in opening statements Tuesday in a civil trial in Sonoma County Superior Court.

Gonzalez linked at least part of the pollution to land owned by Union Pacific on Frances Avenue and to chemical barrels from Optical Coating Laboratories Inc. found at that property and an adjacent parcel. The property was owned by Southern Pacific, which was taken over by Union Pacific in 1996, and OCLI became part of JDS Uniphase in 2000.

Defense attorneys, however, contended the problem was caused by two dry cleaning establishments in the immediate neighborhood, which is a half mile from the Frances Avenue site. “The plaintiffs’ drinking water wells were contaminated; it’s just that they were contaminated by the dry cleaners,” said attorney John Barg of San Francisco, who was representing Union Pacific.

Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat by clicking here.

June 6, 2009 · Filed Under Groundwater, Northern California

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