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Hartford-raised man sues for petroleum exposure
By Steve Gonzalez - Edwardsville Bureau
December 01, 2005 - Nathan Wright of Murphysboro filed a benzene lawsuit in Madison County Circuit Court alleging his blood disorder was caused by petroleum products he was exposed to for the two years he lived in Hartford.
Wright, who filed the suit Nov. 30, is seeking damages in excess of $150,000.
According to the complaint, Wright was conceived and born in Hartford in 1982 and lived there until his family moved in 1984. In 1986, he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a blood disorder caused by benzene.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), aplastic anemia is a failure of the bone marrow to properly form all types of blood cells. If untreated, it can lead to a rapid death.
Mild cases of aplastic anemia are treated with blood transfusions and platelet transfusions which help correct the abnormal blood counts and relieve some symptoms.
Severe cases require a bone marrow transplant in younger patients.
Benzene is an aromatic hydrocarbon that is produced by the burning of natural products. It is a component of products derived from coal and petroleum and is found in gasoline and other fuels and is used to make some types of rubbers, lubricants, dyes, detergents, drugs and pesticides.
Natural sources of benzene include volcanoes and forest fires. Benzene also is a natural part of crude oil, gasoline, and cigarette smoke.
Wright claims that prior to 1983, huge amounts of gasoline and petroleum products were leaked or spilled from refineries or pipelines underneath Hartford so that about four million gallons of co-mingled gasoline and petroleum products exist under Hartford.
He claims that the vapors from the waste were released into the homes of the residents of Hartford and also claims that benzene polluted the water at dangerous levels.
Defendants in Wright's suit include Valero Energy, formerly known as Clark Oil, Apex Oil Company, Atlantic Richfield Company, Sinclair Oil, Shell Oil, Amoco Oil and BP Pipelines.
“Wright did not learn of a possible connection between his environmental exposure and defendants’ release of toxins including benzene in Hartford, and his aplastic anemia until 2004,” the complaint states.
He claims that any applicable statues of limitations have been tolled or have not run because the defendants’ knowingly and actively concealed and denied the leaks.
“Wright had been kept in ignorance of the nature and extent of the information essential to the pursuit of these claims, without any fault of lack of diligence on his part,” the suit states.
Wright claims that the defendants knew or should have known that the benzene in the products that leaked has a toxic, poisonous and highly deleterious effect on any person coming into contact with them.
According to the complaint, the defendants failed to inspect, monitor and maintain their pipelines and facilities, and failed to clean up the gas and petroleum that leaked or spilled.
Wright claims that as a result he has incurred medical expenses, deformities, stunted growth, pain and suffering, mental anguish and a shortened life expectancy.
According to the NIH, bone marrow transplantation has been successful in young people, with long term survival of 80 percent. Older people have a survival rate of 40 to 70 percent.
Wright also claims he will incur future medical expenses and will be on life-long medication.
He claims the defendants owed him a duty to refrain from willful and wanton acts that would harm him. However, they breached that duty by failing to properly store, handle, dispose or clean up remediate gasoline and petroleum products.
Wright is represented by David Helfrey, Philip Graham and Allison Price-Appel of Helfrey, Simon & Jones in St. Louis and Teresa Woody, Norman Siegel, Todd Hilton, Aaron Johnson and David Summers of Kansas City.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron.
Army says water at Netzaberg will be treated, safe
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition
July 26, 2007 - GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Drinking water at the Army’s new Netzaberg housing area will be safe, even though it will come from wells contaminated with radioactive elements, Army officials said this week.
Former Eschenbach town councilor Franz Praun raised concerns over the safety of the drinking water recently, sending letters to the city of Eschenbach, local news outlets and environmental groups. In his letter, Praun wrote that Eschenbach city documents show radon, radium-226 and radium-228 in water from two wells that will be used to supply Netzaberg — an 830-home U.S. military housing area under construction near Grafenwöhr.
“Responsible authorities must to be asked, whether it is OK to supply the residents here, American soldiers and their families, with radioactively loaded water,” he wrote.
Praun, who also is concerned that the water might be sent to German homes, wrote that the wells exceed European Union health guidelines.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, long-term exposure to radium increases the risk of developing diseases such as lymphoma, bone cancer, leukemia and aplastic anemia.
U.S. officials confirmed Monday that radioactive particles are present in the well water but said a treatment plant — under construction as part of the Netzaberg project — will remove them before the water is supplied to residents.
Thomas Hays, the U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwöhr director of public works, said officials knew about the radioactivity in the water before Praun raised the issue.
“The expressed concern is about water coming from a future well,” Hays said. “There is already a plan in place to treat that water before it is put into the public system. We don’t see any future threat to any occupants out there at all.”
Other towns in Bavaria’s Oberpfalz region also deal with the problem, which is common in areas with the sort of sandstone geology found around Grafenwöhr, he said.
The first Netzaberg residents, who arrived at the start of the month, are supplied with the same water used by Eschenbach city. That water comes from a different aquifer than the one tapped by the two new wells, Hays said.
From late October or early November, the new wells will come on line, but the water will be treated to remove the radioactive particles, Hays said.
“There will be sampling (of water at Netzaberg) by the U.S. Army Center for Health Protection and Preventive Medicine,” he said.
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