The United States Supreme Court will hear an appeal regarding groundwater contamination caused by the CTS plant in South Asheville on April 23.
The CTS Corporation operated the plant on Mills Gap Road from 1959 to 1986, manufacturing electronic components for hearing aids and auto parts. The corporation had been charged with dumping and leaking toxic chemicals, such as trichloroethylene (TCE), into the ground surrounding the former plant. The factory closed over three decades ago. TCE is classified as a human carcinogen, and has been linked to numerous instances of cancer in local residents.
The case, CTS Corp. v Waldburger, was filed by a group of landowners living near the site after they faced constant frustrations and claimed CTS failed to clean up the site.
Freshman Kayla Adell lives less than a mile from the old CTS site. Although her family has city water access, the proximity of the contamination site to her house worries her.
“It bothers me every time I drive by it, because I know what’s there, what happened, and all the problems it has caused,” Adell said.
Lee Ann Smith, a resident of one of the nearby communities, has also personally faced the effects of water contamination when both of her sons developed cancers that were eventually were traced back to TCE. Smith decided she needed to get involved and spread awareness. This prompted her to become one of the leaders in the lawsuit, which was filed after the 2009 discovery of groundwater contaminated with TCE in local wells.
Smith spearheaded the effort by starting the formation of the POWER (Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources) group, which is a team that was established due to the need for a community-based group to press for a full-scale cleanup. As a plaintiff in the case going before the Supreme Court, Smith has felt frustrations as the case slowly worked its way up.
“It has been a slow and sometimes disheartening process. The U.S. Justice Department is arguing against us and I have to ask myself ‘why wouldn’t the US Justice Department stand with us in our efforts to curb corporate irresponsibility and pollution?’ It seems that CTS is shirking responsibility based on a technicality in the law,” Smith said.
After losing the case in a lower court, the landowners appealed to the 4th US Circut of Appeals, with the majority of the panel siding with the plaintiffs. CTS appealed again, and this time the case moved up to the national level.
The case centers on the North Carolina statute of repose, a provision that states that an individuals only have a certain length of time to file a complaint. In North Carolina, the time limit is 10 years. According to records, the first signs of contamination began to appear in the late 1990’s, over a decade after the last documented release of chemicals. However, new cancer cases are now being discovered that are being linked to the pollutants, and the affected people are currently unable to legally hold CTS responsible. This repose is what they aim to change.
The outcome of the case will likely provide a new precedent on environmental legal cases involving contamination across the country. The verdict will either change the laws regarding clean-up efforts and responsibility for the pollutants, or will enforce the statutes of repose that are currently in effect, according to a statement released by one of the case attorneys.
Smith is optimistic about case.
“Our attorneys feel very positive about our chances of the Supreme Court ruling in our favor. If this happens, it will mean that many people in the area who have likely gotten sick due to TCE exposure will be able to file personal injury claims against CTS. This ruling will impact not only people in our area, but others across the country in how they are able to seek damages against corporate polluters,” Smith said.
The CTS Corporation operated the plant on Mills Gap Road from 1959 to 1986, manufacturing electronic components for hearing aids and auto parts. The corporation had been charged with dumping and leaking toxic chemicals, such as trichloroethylene (TCE), into the ground surrounding the former plant. The factory closed over three decades ago. TCE is classified as a human carcinogen, and has been linked to numerous instances of cancer in local residents.
The case, CTS Corp. v Waldburger, was filed by a group of landowners living near the site after they faced constant frustrations and claimed CTS failed to clean up the site.
Freshman Kayla Adell lives less than a mile from the old CTS site. Although her family has city water access, the proximity of the contamination site to her house worries her.
“It bothers me every time I drive by it, because I know what’s there, what happened, and all the problems it has caused,” Adell said.
Lee Ann Smith, a resident of one of the nearby communities, has also personally faced the effects of water contamination when both of her sons developed cancers that were eventually were traced back to TCE. Smith decided she needed to get involved and spread awareness. This prompted her to become one of the leaders in the lawsuit, which was filed after the 2009 discovery of groundwater contaminated with TCE in local wells.
Smith spearheaded the effort by starting the formation of the POWER (Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources) group, which is a team that was established due to the need for a community-based group to press for a full-scale cleanup. As a plaintiff in the case going before the Supreme Court, Smith has felt frustrations as the case slowly worked its way up.
“It has been a slow and sometimes disheartening process. The U.S. Justice Department is arguing against us and I have to ask myself ‘why wouldn’t the US Justice Department stand with us in our efforts to curb corporate irresponsibility and pollution?’ It seems that CTS is shirking responsibility based on a technicality in the law,” Smith said.
After losing the case in a lower court, the landowners appealed to the 4th US Circut of Appeals, with the majority of the panel siding with the plaintiffs. CTS appealed again, and this time the case moved up to the national level.
The case centers on the North Carolina statute of repose, a provision that states that an individuals only have a certain length of time to file a complaint. In North Carolina, the time limit is 10 years. According to records, the first signs of contamination began to appear in the late 1990’s, over a decade after the last documented release of chemicals. However, new cancer cases are now being discovered that are being linked to the pollutants, and the affected people are currently unable to legally hold CTS responsible. This repose is what they aim to change.
The outcome of the case will likely provide a new precedent on environmental legal cases involving contamination across the country. The verdict will either change the laws regarding clean-up efforts and responsibility for the pollutants, or will enforce the statutes of repose that are currently in effect, according to a statement released by one of the case attorneys.
Smith is optimistic about case.
“Our attorneys feel very positive about our chances of the Supreme Court ruling in our favor. If this happens, it will mean that many people in the area who have likely gotten sick due to TCE exposure will be able to file personal injury claims against CTS. This ruling will impact not only people in our area, but others across the country in how they are able to seek damages against corporate polluters,” Smith said.