Plaintiff in the woburn case - Speech or Presentation Example

Moreover, the plaintiffs will set out to prove that the ingestion of TCE and PCE from the contaminated supply wells caused the diseases and deaths in the families of Ann Anderson and other families in the Woburn area, chiefly leukemia and complications from leukemia in the children and the spouse of one of the plaintiffs represented (Science Education Center at Carleton College). Statement of Responsibility and Argument The bulk of the plaintiff’s arguments will focus on proving, from a variety of scientific evidence and arguments, that the defendant is guilty of negligent dumping of the chemicals TCE and PCE, and that negligent act is directly responsible for the very adverse and grave health effects that were mentioned above.

To be specific, the negligent dumping of TCE and PCE caused the contamination of the municipal supply wells, which then resulted in the induced leukemia in some of the children of the area families, as well as the death from leukemia of one of the spouses of the plaintiffs. The argument is that having caused the adverse health effects and damage to the water supply in Woburn, the defendant should be held accountable under the law (Science Education Center at Carleton College). . The report confirms elevated levels of both TCE and PCE in the area, higher than the tolerable levels specified by the ATDSR.

The levels of PCE that were measured equaled 1.9 parts per billion in the basements of the residences in Dewey Avenue, way above the CREG levels specified by the ATDSR at just 0.3 parts per billion, and higher than the range for three other cities measured as between just 0.04 parts per billion to a maximum of 1.3 parts per billion. On the other hand, for TCE, the levels measured equaled anywhere from 0.065 ppb to 0.16 ppb, higher than the CREG value specified by the ATDSR at 0.1 ppb. These levels were measured in Dewey Avenue.

On the other hand, with regard to health effects, the report noted that incidences of leukemia was greater by a factor of five for an area in the Woburn community that had been the recipient of the largest water volume coming from the two tainted wells, wells H and G (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry). On the other hand, data exists that confirms the prior contamination of the two wells with VOCs, specifically TCE and PCE, a discovery that was made after an inspection prompted by a discovery of industrial waste drums in proximity to the wells in 1979, and which led to the wells being shut after.

Findings with regard to groundwater contamination are that the groundwater in Woburn had been contaminated with TCE and PCE, even as the soil has likewise been found to have the same contaminants. The soil contamination is on ground which serves as the aquifer recharge zone, from which the two wells G and H drew water (Environmental Protection Agency). On the other hand, detailed hydrogeology analyses point to the