Corporate giant Louisiana-Pacific must answer,
finally, to a diminutive plaintiff. Four families who successfully
sued the wood-products company two years ago will now collect their
$2.3 million settlement.
The U.S. Supreme Court
recently denied the company’s appeal of the original judgment,
reports the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. The case centers on the
small town of Olathe, in western Colorado, where the company
operates a glued-waferboard plant that has violated air-emission
standards since it opened in 1984. By 1987, the four families had
moved out of their nearby homes due to health concerns and filed
suit under the Clean Air Act. By March of 1992, that suit had
finally come to court and a jury had awarded the $2.3 million
settlement. Louisiana-Pacific, however, immediately appealed (HCN,
6/28/94). The EPA became involved in 1990, when it brought a
separate civil suit against the polluter, also under the Clean Air
Act. That case, decided in May 1993, led to a fine of $11.1 million
– the largest ever for such a
violation.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline L-P coughs up.
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