Nuclear plant neighbors anticipate trial in 10-year-old federal lawsuit

 

Jun 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Joe Walker The Paducah Sun, Ky.

The Kentucky Supreme Court gave new life Thursday to a once-dismissed lawsuit claiming the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant devalued the land of surrounding property owners.

Jim Owens, an attorney representing the landowners, said the split decision cast doubt on the case's 2004 dismissal and should lead to a trial in federal court.

"I'm very happy," Owens said. "It was 10 years and 11 months ago that four lawyers came to town so that we could join together and start on this case. It's been a long drive, but we're closer to representing the 127 landowners within a 10-mile radius of the plant."

Four state Supreme Court justices concurred that:

--The landowners don't have to prove they were actually harmed to sue past contractors for trespassing by allowing contaminants to spread beyond the plant.

--Land devaluation via intentional trespassing is a recognized measure of damages once actual injury is determined. There is injury if groundwater is contaminated and it can't be consumed.

The Supreme Court clarified those aspects of Kentucky law at the request of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where landowners appealed their case after federal Judge Joseph McKinley dismissed it. McKinley ruled prior to the start of the scheduled trial that there was no proof enough contamination existed to pose a health hazard.

Owens said he expects appeals judges to send the case back to Paducah for a trial. "We'll be back in court again just like before Judge McKinley threw us out."

Bill Cunningham of Kuttawa was among three dissenting Supreme Court justices. He agreed with the majority but said the landowners unequivocally have the right to recover damages if they prove their property was devalued. The majority had said the question didn't have a simple yes or no answer.

Landowners sued in January 1997 alleging that about 10 billion gallons of polluted groundwater had damaged 82 pieces of property. They also claimed they lost use of their property and suffered loss to plants, crops, livestock and wildlife.

Defense lawyers for former plant operators Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin denied the allegations and sought the dismissal. The case was the only one alleging land devaluation among several lawsuits filed in recent years claiming contamination by the uranium enrichment plant.