Kodak's True Colors

Eastman-Kodak was assessed the largest criminal fine ever in an environmental case in New York state and the fourth largest ever paid in the nation in April. The maker of Kodak film pleaded guilty to New York state criminal charges of unlawful dealing in hazardous wastes and to charges of failing to notify authorities of a chemical spill. The company will pay a $1.15 million fine for its criminal wrongdoing. Kodak also agreed to pay an additional $1 million and to undertake extensive cleanup work for the damage it caused.

The charges followed Kodak's February 1987 spill of 5,100 gallons of methylene chloride and its failure to obtain proper licensing for a hazardous waste facility. A 1988 disclosure of an underground chemical leak in a residential area near the hazardous waste facility alarmed residents and forced half of the area's more than 200 families to move out.

"This stiff fine punished the company for its unlawful handling of soil contaminated with hazardous waste, and for the company's lax attitude in reporting the spill of a chemical solvent, methylene chloride, used in film manufacturing," New York Attorney General Robert Abrams said. He warned Kodak that "a great deal of work remains to be done to remedy decades of environmental abuse and negligent handling of hazardous chemicals at the facility." Abrams added, "For the future, I expect Kodak will live up to its legal obligations to the state and its moral obligations to the citizens who live near the plant."

Such tough talk notwithstanding, neighborhood groups fighting Kodak were disappointed with the fine. "It's equivalent to you or I getting a jaywalking ticket," said Joseph Polito, a neighborhood resident.

Martin Marietta's Wrong

A federal judge has ruled that environmental safety is a civil right. U.S. District Court Judge Zita Weinshienk has allowed a group of Denver residents to go forward with the first environmental lawsuit known to be filed under Federal civil rights law. The Denver citizens accuse Martin Marietta, a military contractor which produces missiles and missile systems for the Defense Department, of dumping toxic chemicals into a Denver stream. They further allege that the Denver Water Board (DWB) knowingly distributed the water to Denver residents. The citizens say the contaminated water caused two children's deaths, life-threatening cancer in two other children and one adult, and birth defects and seizures in other children.

Martin Marietta's plant, which was closed in 1985 by the Colorado Department of Health for contaminating the water supply, used hydrazine as fuel for its Air Force missiles and allegedly dumped the wastes into a Denver stream. Hydrazine is known to cause seizures, birth defects and cancer. Criminal investigations of Martin Marietta are underway.

Martin Marietta and the DWB deprived the residents of their "constitutional rights by polluting a public water supply with highly toxic chemicals, covering up the contamination of the public water supply, and delivering life threatening and disease causing contaminated water" to the citizens' homes, the suit charges. DWB delivered the water without providing any treatment or warning to protect the families from contamination, the families say. Martin Marietta and DWB allegedly engaged in this practice for 27 years.

In her decision, Weinshienk compared the case to one in which a person picks up a glass of water known to contain poison, delivers it to "person C ... and says 'Here's some water for you to drink.'" She added, she believes "that the plaintiffs have presented sufficient evidence that this court could draw an inference the Water Board and its employees had repeated notice of the problems with Martin Marietta dumping and did nothing in response."

Hoechst Harms Pampa

Pampa, Texas residents have charged that toxic chemical emissions from a Hoechst Celanese Corp. plant have caused Down's syndrome and other serious ailments in those who live close to the chemical plant. The residents' lawsuit will test an emerging medical theory linking chemical emissions to Down's syndrome, birth defects, leukemia and other serious health ailments.

In a report submitted to the court referring to "epidemic proportions" of Down's syndrome in the area, Dr. Gerald Holman, former dean of the Texas Medical School, states, "In all medical probability the cluster of Down's syndrome children [in Pampa] is related to the environmental pollutants emitted from the Celanese plant site." Holman also expressed the conviction that the area surrounding the plant has experienced major environmental damage "because of inadequate monitoring of such dangerous chemical poisons produced by Celanese Corporation."

The West German-based Hoechst Celanese, one of the largest chemical manufacturers in the world, denied that the plant was responsible for the Down's syndrome cluster. "Hoechst has been a leader in monitoring the health of our employees for many years," says Herb Reed, director of communications at the company. "It is important to note that our workers, who would be expected to have the greatest potential for exposure to benzene and other chemical emissions, have shown no unusual incidence of cancer or other illnesses � this after 38 years of operating in Pampa."

Residents of Pampa and railroad workers at the plant allege in the lawsuit that their health ailments resulted from Hoechst Celanese's negligence. They accuse the company of knowingly emitting poisons into the air and water. "They knew these chemicals were poisons and they made attempts to keep the poisons away from their workers but passed the chemicals on to the public," the suit says. "The people in Pampa are worse off than if they lived in Los Angeles always at rush hour. Celanese has certainly created a uniquely dangerous atmosphere for the people in and around the plant."

� David Lapp