EXCLUSIVE: Pratt & Whitney sued over Acreage cancer cluster
Tags: Beeline Highway, cancer cluster, Craig Zobel, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Jose Lambiet's Page2Live, pollution, Pratt & Whitney, The Acreage, West Palm Beach
| Wednesday 10 February 2010 8:01 pm
Four households in The Acreage tonight filed a federal lawsuit in West Palm Beach alleging that defense contractor Pratt & Whitney is responsible for the cancer cluster recently discovered in the pastoral community in Palm Beach County’s western confines.
In the class action suit, plaintiffs Edwin Reyes, Danielle Lazzaro, Steven and Liliana Vigilante, and Kevin and Susan Halstead allege that, beginning in the late 1950s, Pratt & Whitney dumped pollutants — including PCB’s — into the ground during the manufacturing of military jet and rocket engines at its Beeline Highway plant.
“Pratt & Whitney operations . . . also produced acidic and alkaline rinse waste water . . . collected in percolation pounds, buried, stored and incinerated on the defendant’s property,” the complaint, filed by West Palm attorney Craig Zobel late Wednesday, reads.
The waste, according to the lawsuit, included oil, sodium cyanide, thorium-dispersed nickel, construction debris, unknown solid waste, solvents, solvent sludges, asbestos, fuels, paints, pesticides and herbicide residue, benzonitrite, mercury, and commercial and laboratory chemicals.
“Over the years, ground water movements . . . have caused contaminants to escape from the defendant’s property into surrounding areas of The Acreage,” it continues.
The filing does not include evidence but Zobel told Page2Live today: “I’ve found documentation that shows that the allegations are true.”
For more, look below or click here
Zobel writes that in November 2008, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection suspected that as many as 24 contaminants had leaked onto the Pratt & Whitney property over the years, and were still present in the ground.
The action is the first lawsuit filed since the state health department started investigating last summer a cluster of childhood cancer in The Acreage.
Pratt & Whitney officials have claimed that pollutant spills on their 7,000-acre site never spread beyond Pratt’s boundaries. When residents started questioning the high number of sick children in the area, Pratt spokesman Tom Callaghan said there was “little to no migration of groundwater impact off our site.”
Incidentally, Wednesday’s lawsuit doesn’t ask the court to hold Pratt & Whitney liable for health problems among residents. It does, however, ask the court to force Pratt & Whitney to compensate the plaintiffs for the plunging value of properties.
“The measure of damages is the difference between the fair market value (of homes) with and without the stigma of the cancer cluster,” the paperwork reads.
LOL By the time the attorneys’ get their fees and costs paid off and a 40% or so of the proceeds coupled with the difference between fair market value (for many half or less what they paid for their home) with and without the stigma of the cancer cluster, you might have enough left over to buy a coffee.
Too late for all the other attorneys: Zobel was the first ambulance chaser on this.
The allegations could be accurate. However proving it is entirely another matter. For the last 50 years theres been an enormous amount of drainage into the culverts/canals. Pesticides/Fertilzers from Homeowners, Commercial Nurseries, Commercial Agriculture, etc. Petroleum runoff from Automobiles. Those areas between North Lake Blvd and Southern Blvd are heavily traveled with Commercial Vehicles. All those petroleum distillates are transferred to the culverts/canals and then seep into the well water systems. And lets not forget the wells and septic tanks being almost side by side. And the list goes on. So lets give credit to all these culprits destroying the environment.
I have always thought it could be from Pratt, the old Air Base and the sewage dumped in those areas the past 50 years. Where was the old gas dumped when they pumped it out and replaced stations with new underground tanks. Where was old paint and other chemicals dumped in those days?
The nature of the cancers was traceable to Radon in the water supply, and the practice of backflushing treated water back into the watershed. The Radon is coming from the low grade phosphate deposit that underlies that area across to Bradenton. Only those western deposits were good enough to mine. Otherwise, the Acreage would be as cratered as the rest of west Florida. The presence of the phosphate deposit was disclosed to the buyers of those properties.
the old deep pocket gambit, go after the guy with the most money and make him settle.
The idea of suing without proof should be anathema to any reasonable person.
How can you sue, and make a claim about another party’s culpability, when you don’t have factual proof in hand to present to the court? You shouldn’t be able to go into court and simply say to a jury, “C’mon, believe us!” and get a judgment in your favor just because your assertion is ~plausible~! It should take more than that just to get past summary judgment!
see,,told you it was about $$$$$$.. as stated “no liability over health concerns” just plumeting property values as if the ecomony has nothing to do w/ it…another set of mega mansions or overpriced loans n a 5 yr arm…. ALL ABOUT $$$$$..
Am I an idiot, or is there not 4 miles of Corbett between Pratt and the Acreage?
They are blaming the wrong people, but the only people nearby with $$. I would put my money on pesticides/fertilizers and natural contaminants causing the issues, if there are actually real issues and this is not just a statistical outlier.
No way they can blame Pratt. That place was the boonies for years. God only knows what was dumped there until 20 years ago. If someone in North County had something to dump guess where they went.
Good for them. It’s sure a lot better than whining and sniveling for the government to rip the rest of us off to pay. How dare they.
DOES THE FAIR MAKET VALUE INCLUDE THE ALREADY CUT IN HALF VALUE TO THE HOMES OR DO WE TAKE THE BALANCE AND BLAME THAT ON PRATT AND WHITNEY AND HAVE ZERO VALUE AS AN EXCUSE TO GET OUT OF A BAD LOAN????????
Hi jorja and everyone else on this post,
All should read the class action suit before posting. The 10,000 homes and families will be in for a large sum of money, if they win…..maybe enough to out right buy a few coffee(D&D)franchises.
What a freakin embarrasment this has turned in to.
Y’all need to go back to Boca and points north and quit your petty whining and looking for your handouts.
I have lived here my entire life and in Loxahatchee (in the very northwest corner of the Acreage, closest to Pratt Whitney) for 15 yrs, drinking the water and all (and I/we still do).
I have lost two friends at 39/41 yrs old to brain cancer and 3 immediate relatives to various cancers and my mother is a cancer survivor..NONE of which lived or spent time in the Acreage,
You screwed up and overpaid, get over it suckers. You all moved here only to immediately complain about dirt roads and no commercial, demanding that it change to accomodate your sorry asses.
TOUGH SIHT…GET OUT!!
I think that these 4 people who are trying to sue Pratt are in need of money. I mean when did they buy there houses? Was it in the Peak of the housing market? Also do any of them or anyone of there family members have or had cancer? And if Pratt is responsible for dumping toxins, why isn’t there any cancer clusters in Jupiter Fatms, or Palm Beach Estates. Both places are closer to Pratt and have no problems.
let me guess..not one of these families every used round up, or fungicide, or bug mainteneance. let alone every have the semi-anual termite protection which consists of injecting poisen around your home foundation.. i guess all these people have lived nothing but organic or holistically… maybe they shouldsarch the “municapal supply” ingrediant on there water bottles and realize they are getting city water w/toxic flouride and chlorine and not the unfilterd natural spring water the bottle states. GET AN RO SYSTEM and get over it, or we will sue you for our decreased property values. and by the way since i’m on a role MR and MRS DUNSFORD who started this. how can you afford to live a an overpriced $700000.00 home, thats not worth what you paid( like every one else and cant spend a few thousand more to take personal resoponsibilty to test your own water or soil. you started a pandemic scare of unsafe water in our neighbood that is totally unfound and YOU brought our property values down and the press is just as responsible for not reinerating that ‘THERE IS NOTHING WRONG W/ THE WATER. CHECK YOUR OWN BACKYARD AND PERSONAL HISTORY AND QUIT LOOKING TO BLAME…
if there was something wrong w/ our water source the whole neighborhood would be shut down, I think,or i would like to thing god forbid if that would happen i am sure some gov’t agency would bring water trucks in or do something,,, some state of emergency i am sure., or maybe not.. you know the gov’t is just as corrupt,, ask indian trail leaders.. they are all in it for city toxic water..
They must have seen the “Who Can I sue Sign”! South Florida is nothing but law suit lottery country.
WHEW!! No basis but they are suing. If it was toxic waste it would not be spotty, duh. ExFloridian (5) makes a lot of sense. Radon has been the only source/link. There is cancer everywhere, I can name five cases within my own little town. I don’t think their numbers are correct. The website they have uses statistics I can’t find elsewhere.
Thank you jennifer and gregg Dunsford, you have ruined our Community….why are you still living in the Acreage? Oh I know, you are waiting for the payola..Then will you go back to Broward….
hey why dont we sue the Dunsford? They have ruined our community,brought property values down not Pratt. Science has no proof of what causes brain cancer in kids. Science has no idea what causes brain cancer in kids. Didnt the Dunsfords know this, If I had a kid with cancer I would have turned every stone to find what causes this cancer, and I would of found out NOBODY knows, I would never have ruined someone else life someone elses home over it a whole comminity..
Excuse me,
Homes all across Florida and all Costal States have been crashing since 07.
Now this group are trying to blame the decline in home values on a cancer cluster.
How do you explain the crash of all other areas including non cluster areas?
Interesting enough that the home of REYES EDWIN J was purchased at the peak of the housing bubble in 05, for 480,666. This home was never worth that amount in the first place. PAPA now values his home at 321,987.
Danielle Lazzaro paid 180,000 ( 100% financing) in 2003, PAPA values this home now at 140,331.
Kevin and Susan Halstead bought in 1985, they paid 85,000. PAPA now values their home at $145,054 but in 2007 they valued it at 290,305, and in 2008 it was 252,260. So you can see that over the last several years their has been a decline year over year. They extracted equity several times over the last number of years.
********* NEWS BULLETIN*********
How do you explain the crash of all other areas including non cluster areas?
JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE COUNTRY due to the collapse of the housing bubble home values are retreating back to pre bubble prices.
If there has been additional values lost due to announcement of the Cancer Cluster I have not seen it reflecting on sale or list prices of homes.
I am currently waiting on a short sale approval on a home that I am trying to purchase in zip code 33470. Ironically this home is being sold from an estate sale for a man that died of cancer ( brain and lung) The story is he was exposed to asbestos in his career and died very quickly.
I am still going ahead on the purchase of 200,000 on a home built in 03. I have not gone back to the bank and demanded a reduction of my asking price. I have been waiting over a month before the announcement on the cancer cluster was made.
If this is true then I should immediately contact my realtor to tell him to reduce my asking price as I must be grossly overpaying.
This lawsuit is so frivolous I can’t see it ever going through, it is so transparent.
Why are some people blaming Greg Dunsford? Is that the same man that was on the video who also has a child with cancer?
Is it that some of you don’t believe it? What am I missing? How did Greg Dunsford become responsible for the collapse in real estate values in the Acreage? Prices are down and in many areas collapsing everywhere in Fla and in most places in the country. The country is having it’s own cancer, it’s called big government coupled with ignorant people who want someone to take care of them from cradle to grave, while having almost seamless wars in several places and even looking for trouble elsewhere. Did Greg Dunsford do that?
CC - you are right on the money. This goes beyond the water. Everyone should do some research into Monsanto who OWNS and CONTROLS the govt. Go to this site: http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm and look at the bottom right side of the page to see who they will be fighting. Nothing will come out of this law suite - just like nothing happened in CT @ P&W.
While I do agree it is sad for the families. You cant put blame on anyone or sue anyone to pay for your homes or your medical bills. Culpability will not be met.
Great. Lets sue and chase away some of the little industry we have left in Palm Beach County. Outrageous!
The way I see is that these people are getting a jump on the families w/ cancer. We have seen a tremendous decline in home sales and prices since the cancer study began and we will continue to see even more when your neighbors start to move out and leave their homes empty; foreclose or short sell. Our prices are all based on local recent sales. Those of us who want to continue to live here either because we have no other options or because this is still our dream will see nothing from the cancer families lawsuit. This cluster has adversely affected all of us. Why shouldn’t there be a class action lawsuit brought forward if they can prove wrong doing?
I cannot tell you how many people have been scattering for “lawyers” in hopes of who can I blame my dog’s death on in the acreage. WHile I understand there were deaths and they are still being investigated, NO ONE knows just yet where this originated and of course, here come the lawyers because they all want to be the Brokovich of the nation. Ooooh, Honey, my payday is finally here —- I am suing Pratt —- big money! Break out the 401k because that’s just pennies compared to what we’re going to make! I hope Pratt gets the best damned law firm in town and fights this with every factual numbers and dumpings they have. May the company WIN!
Amen, John. We have ZERO business left here. Absolutely none. This county is so difficult to do business in. Everyone has a hand out and the small handful of larger companies we have are next. FPL, Tire Kingdom, SFWMD…. what’s next? A class action because the tires TK sold weren’t perfectly round and caused someone texting and driving 55 to lose balance?
As an ex-employee of Pratt & Whitney, I was made aware of OSHA doing investigations in the 1981 &82 era for chemical mishandling. This included many of us even drink Tri- chor etholine in our water. I have a copy of the inside investigation and even the air in our work place was comtaninated, much over the government levels.
I witnessed chemicals being dumped into the ground or down drains as well.
As for anyone driving onto Pratt and just dumping chemicals or other waste, well kiss that goodbye as this place do to it’s top secret work was very secure. We had to go through 3 armed gaurds just to get to our toolboxes.
I’m not surprised by any of this stuff, just that it was covered-up for so long. Many of us employees have suffered because of this as well.
MyohMy #27- get over yourself. Can you tell me just how many people are scattering for attorneys? Really! I would say more people are contacting attorneys for bankrupting their homes rather than suing anyone since nobody really knows who is to blame if anyone. There’s a much bigger picture here and if you are not going through this torture get off the board.
Has anyone told the home owners that they brought a house that was BUILT ON A DUMP..THATS WAS A DUMMPING GROUND FOR GARABGE FROM THE CITY…
FACT.. many years and moons ago itS been a dump..
check the Lime in the rocks , sand..LEVELS
I suppose that information is missing !!!!
Who the heck is BEGREEN AKA BESTUPID.
You have some nerve blaming the Dunsfords for all of this.
The only thing they are to be recognized as is Hero’s and their son is one of the bravest kids you’ll ever know.
If you so brave to write your stupid coments why didn’t you sign it with your name and address. Your a trouble maker and you should butt out.
I can only pray for lost souls like you and wish none of this on your children or loved ones. God forgives everyone. Just ask him and you will see. But if you don’t thats ok, I asked him to forgive you.
Confused, Take note that all the people that are involved in the suit are not the families of the sick kids. You tell me whats wrong with this picture. As a matter of fact none of us who’s families have filed a law suit.
Not to say we will not but for now it doesn’t make sense.
Who should we blame I don’t think Gregg Dunsford dumped 55 gal drums around the Acreage.
the way i see it pratt and whitney was ther before all the homes.Sue the county
There were no disclosures about a dump; none about an ex Superfund site; none whatsoever.
What the people want to know is if there is a problem causing the brain tumors - what is it and where did it come from so we can protect the rest of the population. How would you like to have this in your neighborhood? Would you seek the answer or just shrug it off?
I just want to know why the county let Pratt do self-checking? Caloosa is much closer and would suffer much harsher, so why are they being ignored? Pratt has released toxins for years and no one should have been allowed to build a home within 10 miles around that plant. Homebuyers should have been warmed just like a lead paint disclosure. I pray for the families with health issues and feel that Pratt and the county should rectify this problem of health and property devaluation beyond just the normal economic effect (or possible complete worthlessness).