$200 million suit filed against Ottawa, 2 companies over water ills
Montreal, Quebec, Canada (AHN) – The Quebec Superior Court is scheduled to begin trial Monday of a $200 million class-action lawsuit filed by residents of Shannon against Ottawa and two firms. The lawsuit was filed by resident Marie-Paule Spieser on behalf of her community after she discovered its drinking water contained the toxic chemical trichloroethylene.
The chemical was at levels deemed unsafe by public health authorities, which Spieser said caused various ailments among residents and intestinal and liver cancer among people close to her.
The lawsuit was filed against the Attorney General of Canada, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada Inc. and Societe immobiliere Valcartier. SiV, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, owned the land where plants pumped out munitions during the second World War. SNC-Lavalin bought the factories in the 1980s, which were eventually purchased by General Dynamics.
The lawsuit charges Ottawa and the two companies with negligence in handling and disposing of TCE and in informing the residents of the chemical’s dangers. Medical experts said Shannon has cancers and other health problems at a rate higher than the national average because of the residents’ exposure to TCE.
Reports said TCE was buried or thrown into garbage pits and lagoons for decades that test results showed water supplied to factories which were running until 1991 had up to 71 milligrams of TCE per liter. That is 1,500 times above recommended safe level for drinking.
Unsafe drinking water is not a problem of Shannon alone. In mid-December, the Environmental Working Group in the U.S. declared that 31 of 35 U.S. cities had the probable carcinogen hexavalent chromium in drinking water, with the highest concentration in Norman, OK, Honolulu, HI, and Riverdale, CA.
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