(The Associated Press circulated the following article on December 17.)
HULL, Fla. — Eight residents of this small southwest Florida community sued CSX Transportation Corp. on Thursday, alleging that a facility that treated lumber with preservatives released cancer-causing contaminants into the air, soil and groundwater.
The $500 million lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in DeSoto County calls the site a public nuisance.
The residents said in the lawsuit that they and their relatives have either suffered cancer or a decline in property value because of contaminants from the facility.
The company preserved railroad ties and other timbers by treating them with a coal tar, creosote and arsenic mixture in two large pits on the 25-acre site. The pits had no liners to stop the mixture from saturating the soil or leaching into the groundwater, according to the lawsuit.
Company spokesman Gary Sease said CSX has monitored the site since 1983 and that reports from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health have shown no health threat.