Tag Archives: Pensacola

DuPont Responds To Spelter Case

Not since last October, in the Pensacola News Journal, have you heard about the Spelter, W.Va. class action case taken by local Air America Radio Host and attorney Mike Papantonio. And that was the press release about the Levin-Papantonio firm winning a $196 million lawsuit against E.I. DuPont. It has grown since then. Just yesterday the company issued a public response to the class action lawsuit.  And the $127 million in attorneys fees.  This was somehow missed by the local paper.

Dupont’s response is summarized . . .

“The court’s decision to include biennial chest CT scans in the medical monitoring program is particularly troubling. CT scans are not recommended for such medical monitoring because the risks of harm, including risks of cancer due to radiation exposure, outweigh any benefits. This determination is supported by a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial evidence showed that neither the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, nor any other authoritative medical screening authority, recommends CT scans for screening asymptomatic patients. The court’s rulings, which adopt a plan that includes regular CT scans, ignore the consensus of the medical community.

“The court also erred in estimating the cost of the medical monitoring program at $130 million. Plaintiffs’ counsel presented a grossly inflated cost projection as justification for a larger award of attorneys’ fees. This estimate is based on implausible and inflated assumptions and forecasts about medical costs and participation rates for the class members. This projection overestimates the reasonable expected cost of the program by many tens of millions of dollars. DuPont‘s funding obligations will be based on the actual cost of the program, not plaintiffs’ unrealistic estimate.”

And the wrap-up of the total damages at this point goes like this.

On Monday, Bedell approved $127 million in attorneys fees and nearly $8 million in litigation costs, which will be taken from the overall award of $381 million.

related link: Daily Report

Bayou Texar, In Your Head Radio

Had an on-air interview today by Rick Outsen, host of ‘In Your Head Radio,’ publisher of the Independent News, and blogger. Subject of the conversation was focused on my post Cleaning Up Bayou Texar.

Thanks to Rick for bringing the long-standing and long-ignored problem in Bayou Texar to his program and the citizens of Pensacola. And thanks for the plug for The Lunch Counter.

links: In Your Head Radio, 1620am | Cleaning Up Bayou Texar

Cleaning Up Bayou Texar

Referring to this post from last November, I made a point that a local conservation group, the Emerald Coastkeepers, seemed more interested in suing companies with deep pockets and not interested in trying to find out where the sewage comes from that has repeatedly caused the Health Department to close Bayou Texar from human contact. Turns out, they are interested in the sewage problem in the bayou.

Larry B. Johnson, the volunteer in charge of Bayou Texar for the Emerald Coastkeepers is on their board of directors. Larry and I are on the same page on the subject of sewage in the bayou and I have agreed to volunteer to find an end of the sewage problem that has plagued the bayou for so many years. So that’s where I got involved, and now have something to report.

There was a study published by the University of West Florida in September 2006 that was, at that time, the most comprehensive analysis of water quality in Bayou Texar ever done. The Health Department has it for your review on their website. You might need a lawyer and a chemist standing by to assist you in deciphering it. It is very detailed.

After looking at the survey and knowing how many years Bayou Texar has had a sewage problem, I set out to find some answers to these questions. If you have any questions to add, please let me know.

  • Does the Health Dept know which systems are in failing condition?
  • Where are they? Names and addresses.
  • Are any of the properties with failing septic systems within 50 feet of an ECUA sewer?
  • If yes, has the Health Dept taken steps to force the property owners to comply?
  • Has the Health Dept notified the property owners to repair their systems and if so, have the property owners complied?
  • Who is responsible for this problem continuing, the Health Dept or the property owners, or both?
  • Are there any outstanding orders for the ECUA to do any sewer hookups, and if so, how many?
  • Of those hook-up orders, how many of them are on the offending septic systems in the bayou?

With the cooperation of the Health Department and the ECUA, I can report that there are no septic systems facing Bayou Texar. All of the properties on the bayou are on city sewer. I don’t know how long that has been the case, but it is the case now.

Enforcement of codes as relates to sewage falls under the purview of the Health Department. And, according to Philip Davies there, the methods of enforcement they use are definitive and seem to work well. Most often it is handled with a little education to the property owner, and gets into a legal issue if necessary, but in either case, their actions are effective in correcting a problem.

Davies also said that there is a new study currently underway by UWF that is focused on determining the sources of the fecal contamination in the bayou, which necessarily includes Carpenter’s Creek. Carpenter’s Creek, which feeds into the bayou, extends from the bayou on up to beyond Olive Rd and Old Palafox. One quickly realizes how difficult a project this is when you appreciate the size of the area to examine.

There are currently no pending work orders for the ECUA to hookup residents to the sewer system in the Carpenter’s Creek area and no pending actions by the Health Department to residents in the Carpenter’s Creek area.

I questioned whether the dog park on the bayou was the culprit and the answer is no, it is not. Despite the fact that the testing site the Health Department uses for the bayou is right at the dog park, the fecal contamination is not coming from it. They use that site, as opposed to other locations on the bayou, because that is the part of the bayou that has the most public activity.

That is all I have to report at this time. Will report back with a progress report on the current survey that UWF is doing and when they think it will be finished.

UPDATE 01/08/08: Dr. Richard (Dick) Snyder, the biologist responsible for the current study, was prompt to reply to questions I had regarding the study. Thank you Dick for your quick reply. These were the questions . . .

When do you anticipate completing the report? Will the report, or the work being undertaken to produce a report, actually determine the sources or pathology of the fecal contamination as relates to specific properties along the waterway, including rainwater runoff sources? After determining what is happening to the bayou and why things are happening to the bayou, will making recommendations for remediation of the waterway be part of your report or subsequent reports? Is the subject study a UWF financed project or a federal, state, county or city grant-financed project? Basically, who is paying for it?

This is Dr. Snyder’s reply, which addresses every question, in his own words.

The study will be done over two years to incorporate annual variation in water levels. We will try to identify contaminated ground water as opposed to runoff, with the idea that the groundwater will more likely be septic or sewer malfunction. The data will be given to the DOH and ECUA for them to address any identified problems. Financing is from a fine levied against the Target Corp. for contaminating Carpenter’s Creek, through the West Florida Planning Council and with input from the Bayou Texar Foundation, who is providing some additional funding.

So from the standpoint of what happens next as far as sewage in the bayou is concerned, we wait for the report in late 2009 or early 2010. I suppose we can rest easy in the fact that there are no septic systems in use on the bayou itself. The problem appears to be upstream. Meanwhile, residents around Carpenter’s Creek should know to keep an eye out for septic system failures or sewage system failures and report them to the Health Department (595-6722) or the ECUA (969-3303).

Lawsuit Perfect Storm Set In Pensacola

In one day, in the same issue, and on the same pages, the editorial pages echo a story on the front page called “Troubled Waters.” The Pensacola News Journal editorial page begins with “Still a long way to go in curbing toxic emissions.” Citing problems with mercury and lead both here and across the nation, raising the impact to “the critical importance of taking stronger steps to reduce or eliminate emissions of toxic chemicals.” It’s lead paint in houses, it’s PCB’s. What would we do without a ‘crisis’ to champion? And who eats houses anyway?

In the same section comes an article from Emerald Coastkeepers, an environmental group with strong ties to BIG law and Air America Radio talk show hosts Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of whom can lay claim to suing the pants off big corporations from Hudson Falls, NY to a mining town in West Virginia, and BIG pharm and BIG tobacco. This article says that the Coastkeepers are keeping and eye on a BIG company, Archer-Western, doing road infrastructure work for the county. Seems that all the state-required environmental precautions are no match for the occasional signature Florida rainstorm and some runoff goes into a bayou, Bayou Texar.

Curious thing about Bayou Texar is that it is lined with expensive homes with septic systems that leak raw sewage into it, rain or shine, 24-7-365, and the Coastkeepers are not concerned with stopping that. It’s about who has the deepest pockets, not who is doing the most damage.

The PNJ is just playing the responsible role in informing us of the environmental problems around us. And it is also laying the groundwork for the dynamic duo to go after those big, evil corporations again.

Digging deeper into this perfect storm shows the Independent News was the first to bring it up in their November 1st cover story. Coming off his “landmark environmental victory” in Spelter, W.Va, Papantonio says “I’m going to start doing cases like this in our area. I’m ready for it.” Papantonio sort of laid out his cards in an interview with editor Duwayne Escobedo like this . . .

“We have a generational issue here,” he says. “We had a generation of politicians, media types, businessmen, doctors and professionals who knew better but allowed the environmental devastation to happen anyway. There is going to be a backlash.”

He’s already thinking about the next environmental cases Levin Papantonio and its partners will do in Northwest Florida but he’s not ready to reveal them all yet.

Pressed about it, he does single-out lumber and paper company International Paper. Levin Papantonio filed suit last year on behalf of a handful of Cantonment residents against the company, the world’s largest paper company.

PNJ links: Still a long way to go in curbing toxic emissions
Emerald Coastkeeper monitors runoff problem
Troubled Waters
Nov 1 Independent News Cover Story: Papantonio Promises To Clean Up ‘Backyard’

related links in PNJ’s forum from an anonymous poster named hoagie. That would be me.

A Call To Harms, Slip & Fall Gone Wild | Here’s a suggestion

Why Is Citgo On Our Navy Bases?

Did you know that Citgo is on every Navy base in the United States? To me, there is just something wrong with doing business with a dictator like Chavez, who, with his new bud Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has all but declared war on us. So why should our Navy be doing business with Citgo U.S.?

According to an official at Pensacola NAS, it is because the Navy put that contract out for bid and Citgo was the only company to offer a bid. I find it hard to believe that no other ‘domestic’ oil company bid for the job but will allow for the possibility.

The good news is that the contracts, there are two, are going to expire in 2008 and 2010, according to the official I spoke to at Pensacola NAS. Unless we are prepared to invade Venezuela to insure Chavez performs on his contracts, I think the risk to our national security is not worth taking and we should look to another truly domestic supplier. Granted that Citgo U.S. employs U.S. citizens, but so does Exxon and the rest of them. I’d rather give the business to the company that I trust would perform on the contract under any and all circumstances than to trust Chavez to not shut off the supply.

A stronger case for being self-sufficient where our oil production is concerned cannot be made when you have to trust people like Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. Trusting him is more like playing a game of Russian roulette with a fully loaded weapon.

The solution to this dilemma is to simply get another vendor to bid and find out why none of them bid on it the last time. Are our US owned oil companies not able to compete? Was the request for bids written in such a way that Citgo was the only company that could meet the criteria?

My sympathy goes out to all those dedicated U.S. employees who make a living working for Citgo U.S. because it isn’t their fault that Chavez is an untrustworthy idiot. My fondest wish is that all of them can find jobs in the industry with other oil companies and give Hugo Chavez a present on the next May Day celebration by walking out the door on May 1, 2008.

related links, Get Citgo out of our military bases

Morning Joe, That Went Well

The MSNBC morning show called Morning Joe had some real fireworks in the studio Wednesday morning. Co-host Mika Brzezinski had more respect for the show than to have the lead story be Paris Hilton waltzing out of county jail. I’m on her side with that. I don’t watch the show, but as the video shows, Mika Brzezinski refused to read it and explained her reason. She became increasingly furious over two things, the producer’s insistence that she read the stupid story, and Joe telling her to “read the story” and telling her she’s not a real journalist because of her refusal to do the story to ‘get control of your life.’ ON THE AIR

It made for some intense television. I agree with her point, and Joe should have backed her on it. Yea, Mika did seem to lose it on the air. Watching the video, you wonder how she managed to not bitch-slap Joe and the guy who snatched the lighter from her. She tried to burn the script. Too much coffee maybe, but she didn’t deserve the derogatory comment that Scarborough made to her, and more than once. And what’s the problem with the producer of the show if they don’t lead off with that stupid story? Will something bad happen? Is the 24 yr old airhead demographic so important for MSNBC that real news gets bumped?

The Ring-Of-Fire Is The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

Have you heard that Air America Radio is in bankruptcy?  Not a big deal you know.  Businesses come and go based on their success.  But for Mike Papantonio, board member of Air America Radio and host of AAR’s ‘Ring of Fire’ radio program (I think it’s one hour a week), it must be a big deal. Into AAR for over $600,000, not counting his ‘state-of-the-art’ broadcast studio in Pensacola, Papantonio says he is not a creditor, but rather an investor.

Aside from being an investor in Rabid Radio, he also is loose with the truth.  His animosity towards Rush Limbaugh seems to be his only motivation to continue to be an ‘investor’ in Rabid Radio.  And telling lies in order to utter his name and maybe catch one or two more listeners is more important than his credibility.

Case in point ishis latest ‘Pap Attack’.  In this Pap Attack, did I say attack?  That’s right I did.  That’s what he calls it himself.  Anyway, in this clip, he uses Limbaugh’s name several times as though he is even in the same league, by denouncing the White House’s ‘media day’ as a hate radio gathering with Limbaugh, and other conservative talk-radio hosts.  Give one listen to this clip and you tell me who the hate monger is.  As usual, there is no substance, only a lot of creative pejoratives and insults and crap directed at conservatives, Bush, and talk-radio.  The latter of which he knows apparently little about.

The lie?  What would he have said about ‘media day’ if he knew that Rush Limbaugh was not there nor was he invited to be there?  Spoken like a real class-action attorney.  Sounded great, but not true.

Economics 101 would suggest a correlation between ‘no credibility’ and ‘no money.’  Business 101 would suggest having a product doesn’t mean anyone will buy it. OK, but that’s all the help they’re going to get from me.

Hate Radio Goes To Washington” by Mike Papantonio

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.