CHESAPEAKE
Attorneys representing nearly 400 people, part of a "community trust" made up of residents who live near Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, filed a lawsuit today in Chesapeake Circuit Court seeking damages in excess of $1 billion.
Among their claims is that Dominion Virginia Power sent fly ash to the site despite a consultant's conclusion that the ash eventually would leach harmful elements into the drinking water of nearby homes.
The utility, which supplied the 1.5 million tons of fly ash used to contour the course, is a defendant. In addition, the suit names CPM Virginia LLC, the developer of the course, and VFL Technology Corp., described as Dominion's coal-ash management consultant.
The 12-count suit's demands include the removal of all fly ash from the site; installation of public water and sewer service; the cleaning of the aquifer under the course; compensation for lost property values and personal injury; and the establishment of a fund for medical monitoring and treatment costs. It accuses the companies of committing conspiracy and fraud; battery; negligence; infliction of emotional distress; and the creation of a nuisance.
"This case represents a terrible tragedy in the community, and we ask Dominion to join us in finding a solution," said Roy L. Mason, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs.
Ted G. Yoakam, a Virginia Beach attorney and co-counsel, said, "I've come to realize through talking with these good people that this should never have happened in this day and age."
A paralegal who works for Yoakam lives near the course and is among the plaintiffs.
The suit describes the development as a "toxic waste site masquerading as a 'golf course.' "
It claims that the defendants knew that coal ash and the chemicals it contains were harmful if leached into the water and that the site "was inappropriate for coal-ash placement."
"Dominion has the fly ash - they knew what it was capable of doing," said Robyn Pierce, who lives on Murray Drive, just southeast of the golf course. "They paid people to take it from them, dig up the sand, the good land that we had over there. The developers sold the sand, took the fly ash that Dominion was paying them for and put it in our backyard."
Last fall, Dominion committed to paying up to $6 million to extend city water to residences near the golf course.
Fly ash is a powdery residue left from the burning of coal for electricity. It contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury that can pose environmental threats through groundwater and air.
A Dominion spokesman, contacted Thursday evening, declined to comment.
"We haven't seen the papers," Dan Genest said.
Neil Wallace, president of CPM Virginia, could not be reached for comment. Officials at VFL Technology could not be reached for comment.
The filing of the suit is expected to come nearly a year after a report in The Virginian-Pilot that cited the potential health risks from fly ash through contamination of groundwater.
City officials say there are roughly 200 potable wells within a 2,000-foot radius of the boundaries of the golf course.
The golf course project won approval from the city in 2001 and was cleared by the state Department of Environmental Quality in 2002. It opened for business in 2007.
The development involved moving the ash from a Dominion coal-fired power plant in Deep Creek, where the utility's ash landfill is subject to state solid-waste regulations, to a 217-acre parcel of farmland in the Fentress section of the city that was considered exempt from solid-waste rules.
Only a few months before state regulators allowed the project to move forward, they had warned Dominion that fly ash in its regulated landfill was stacked too high.
Citing state records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, The Virginian-Pilot reported in December that the golf course was considered a linchpin in the utility's plan to comply with the state's warning.
The suit alleges that Dominion and the developers moved forward with the project despite warnings from environmental consultants in 2001 and 2003 - not shared with the city or the state until several months ago - about the potential long-term risks to nearby wells.
One consulting firm predicted that though it would take many years, elements such as arsenic "would ultimately leach into the groundwater and exceed safe limits" and "the first potential receptors to encounter chemicals from the fly ash would be the residences along the southern property line of the site."
In September 2001, URS Corp. completed a "hydrogeologic investigation" of the golf-course site for Dominion, according to the suit. The findings made Dominion aware that some nearby wells were at risk of contamination from the proposed dumping of the ash, the suit alleges.
Dominion commissioned a second URS study, provided in December 2001, according to the suit.
URS' second report confirmed "that its initial study 'resulted in predicted concentrations in groundwater above applicable drinking water standard.' "
"These results included the drinking water standards for arsenic," the suit states.
Tests by city consultants announced last summer found arsenic in groundwater samples from the course at eight times the municipal drinking water standard.
"This was the definition of callous disregard," said Bob Cawood, another attorney who worked on the suit.
Dominion and the developers said the fly ash used on the golf course was treated to inhibit any leaching.
Eva Mae Griffin, one of the plaintiffs, has lived on Whittamore Road, just northeast of the golf course, since the early 1950s.
Griffin said that while she knew nothing about fly ash, she began to become concerned when a man hauling the material from Dominion to the golf course said he had been advised to wear a mask.
"He quit hauling it," Griffin said.
Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com
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Fly ash contamination
Yes, we the electric company customers will have to pay for this and any other litigation awarded over our electric company's wrongful doing. The toxic fly ash is a by-product of the electricity we used. If we had a nice big party which generated a lot of garbage, more than will fit in our trash cans, is it OK for us to take our excess garbage and dump it in someone else's yard? We generated this fly ash every time we turn on the TV or run the cloths dryer; just because we can't see it doesn't mean we aren't creating it. We trusted the electric company to safely contain this poisonous by-product. I'm outraged that my electrical garbage has been spread out into the environment where it is endangering the health of families. If the developer and electric company (and by extension, we customers) have to pay a hefty price for this outrage, maybe we'll be more careful to make sure it doesn't happen again.
sick and callous
I am outraged at some of the comments on here. Entitlement? I would call dumping toxic waste, around people's homes and expecting to get away with it scott-free, entitled. I suppose if something like this happened to any of the previous posters themselves that it would be okay? Or in the words of one poster, this is just supposed to happen near poor people? We're talking about people, human beings, people's children. Do you know how much radiation is contained in fly ash, not to mention lead, mercury, aresenic, and about 188 more dangerous chemicals? I'm completely offended at the lack of compassion. This callous, selfish, every-man-for-himself sentiment is exactly what's wrong with our country. These people deserve our support, and corporations like Dominion need to be held accountable for their actions!
ENTITLED? YES! TO SAFE WELL WATER!
I know residents near the Battlefield Golf Course who wonder whether their well water has already harmed their children. They say they originally chose their neighborhood for rural living and clean, safe well water – not city water. Now their wells draw water from contaminated soil.
These residents are not the ones ruining America! Instead these residents have had their water and neighborhood home values ruined by those who deliberately put 1.5 million tons of coal fly ash next to family wells. Were those residents to roll over and play dead? They did not ask for all the upheaval and stress that lies ahead.
Everyone around Chesapeake learned of the dangers to well water near the golf course only after the Pilot articles appeared. The dangers are real. The flood of fly ash sludge in Tennessee aroused the nation’s awareness that coal fly ash is NOT harmless. Would the writer want Chesapeake residents to wait until they got sick before they raise the alarm? The residents did NOTHING wrong, yet they have been placed in danger.
Toxic heavy metals are ALREADY IN the ground water beneath the golf course– arsenic and lead, among others. Even tiny amounts of lead in smal
If you can't bury toxic
If you can't bury toxic waste and other garbage next door to poor people, then what the heck are you supposed to do with it? That stuff is expensive to get rid of. Seriously though, how much did their property values go UP because of the golf course and have they declined faster or more than everyone else's property values? Has anyone actually become sick? If they win the suit, how much will the "Utilities Lawsuit Payout Surcharge" be on our electric bill? (HaHa) I mean sure, they were wrong to do it but, in a sense, the only money Dominion Power has, comes from our electric bills. So, who exactly would end up paying out the winnings, oops sorry, the $1,000,000,000 settlement? (That's $500 per Dominion Power customer in VA and NC, by the way.) $2,500,000 because your $125,000 house lost 25% of it's value and you can't drink the well water anymore. Not a bad deal. If I were to buy one of these houses now and drink a bunch of water, would I be too late to get in on this lawsuit?
Fair value for damages
Due a google search for fly-ash lawsuits and see what precedents have already been set in cases like this. Small cash awards set into trust funds in case damages occur down the road, and payment to convert homes to city water (already being done). These people have no chance in **** to get what they are asking. Besides who would pay for the result of this suit? Dominion customers in the form of raised rates. I feel their pain and concerns, but get real!
Entitlement and cash cow, you're kidding right
A company willingly and knowingly poisons the residents surrounding that golf course, all the while concealing and lying about how dangerous their product is, and the residents shouldn't be compensated for the companies negligence! The company is essence completely devalued these properties, with the contaminants that leached into the water system, these folks aren't on the city sewer system, and the residents shouldn't be compensated for that negligence! Guess by the thought processes of the previous posters, the owners of the nearby properties should just shrug their shoulders and mutter oh well, we've been poisoned and our properties are worthless, but oh well. Would the previous posters be willing to buy one of those properties, knowing that they would be poisoned too by the dangerous chemicals, I don't think so. Ask any homeowner out there, and I'm sure they'd rather not have ever had to deal with this mess in their lives. Entitlement and cash cow, please.
Here's what's going to happen, folks!
The ambulance chasing lawyers will walk away with 33 to 40 percent of what will amount to as the nuisance value of a frivolous lawsuit. The 'undisclosed settlement' will be a millennium short of a billion dollars with a lawsuit largely built on media hype and convenient extrapolation. The residents will end up angry with their attorneys and everybody else mainly because they've been duped into believing they have a problem. Did not the environmental regulators (and city health offices) tell them the water is safe to drink? Oh that's right, it's all a big conspiracy. The only ones who will prosper from this fiasco will be the lawyers! Let's check back in another 10 years to see if I was right.
Free ride?
Someone found themselves a free ride/cash cow.
sounds familiar
2001...isn't that when they completed the interstate project between Greenbriar and Indian River Road? Remember the white suits in the middle of the interstate for a week or so???? It was about the time when the tree with the owl was slowing things down. Does anybody remember when that happened?