Headlines
Residents Sue 5 Companies
04/26/2006
BY ROB PHILIPS
Northwest Herald Reporter Jillian Compton contributed to this story.
McCULLOM LAKE – A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that manufacturing companies located a mile north of McCullom Lake have leaked toxic chemicals into the area's groundwater for more than 50 years and caused at least three residents to develop rare forms of brain cancer.
A federal class-action lawsuit also was filed on behalf of all current and former McCullom Lake residents, stating that the companies named – Rohm and Haas Chemicals, Morton International, Huntsman, Huntsman Polyurethanes and Modine Manufacturing Company – should pay for a medical monitoring program to identify and treat other residents who possibly were unknowingly infected.
"This is really a case about toxic exposure that has been going on for years in secrecy," said Aaron Freiwald, a Philadelphia attorney representing the McCullom Lake residents. "These companies did everything they could to ignore this community. They need to be held responsible, especially when they acted so grotesquely irresponsible."
The defendants in the lawsuit either did not respond to inquiries regarding the lawsuit or said they could not comment on pending litigation.
"We weren't even aware of [this lawsuit]," said Laura Hadden, spokeswoman for Rohm and Haas. "We are studying it, but we have nothing more to say at this time."
Lori Stafford, a spokeswoman for Modine, said that Modine had been a "good corporate citizen for the last 90 years" and had been commended for its environmental safety efforts.
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Freiwald said Tuesday that his firm has received a wealth of information from the Illinois Department of Environmental Protection that showed that Morton International, which was later bought by Rohm and Haas, dumped liquid chemical waste into a landfill at the company's Ringwood site at 5005 Barnard Mill Road between 1962 and 1975.
At the same location in 1978, a railroad tank-car spill released a large amount of dichloroethylene, a toxic chemical commonly used to make plastic food wraps, the suit states. 
Freiwald said that it was not until 1985 that then-Morton discovered that groundwater below its site included high concentrations of dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride, a gas commonly used to make PVC piping.
Morton did not begin to rectify the system until 1991, when it installed a groundwater remediation system, according to the complaint. That remediation system never worked effectively, the complaint says.
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Bryan Freund, who continues to live at 4821 West McCullom Lake Road, and Kurt Weisenberger, who now lives in Wonder Lake, were diagnosed with rare brain cancers in December 2004 and January 2005, according to the lawsuit.
Weisenberger lived in McCullom Lake for more than 30 years, and Freund has lived there for more than 20, according to the lawsuit.
Franklin Branham, 63, who also lived in McCullom Lake for more than 20 years, was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2004. He died in June 2004.
The three men lived adjacent to one another, Freiwald said.
Freiwald said that the men contacted him after they learned of another lawsuit that Freiwald had filed against Rohm and Haas on behalf of 10 former company employees who also have been diagnosed with brain cancer.
Freiwald said he was confidant that he could prove that the location of the men's homes to the Ringwood plants were connected to their cancer.
"Statistically this just doesn't happen," he said. "You take a small population and find three people all with very rare types of brain cancer. It just doesn't happen like that."
Branham, who is not a plaintiff in Tuesday's suit, is expected to be included in a lawsuit filed by his family, Freiwald said.
Freund and Weisenberger and Branham's family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
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In the class-action lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Philadelphia, it says the same defendants are liable for clean-up expenses and other damages to current and former residents of the village.
Freiwald said that his firm had spoken with about a dozen residents about the lawsuit. Freiwald said he planned to come to the area this week to talk with others.
"If I told you three people who sat in three cubicles in your office all got brain cancer, you definitely would be worried that maybe your were exposed too," Freiwald said.
Bede Winters, who has lived at 3004 Spring Road with his wife and three children for 12 years, said he might get his well tested.
When he learned of the suit Tuesday, his first concern was about his daughter, Abby, who often drank water filtered through the refrigerator rather than the bottled water the family has been buying for years.
"She used to drink it, but I told her to drink bottled water," he said, adding the water is rusty and tastes like iron.
Village trustee Marilyn Shepit, who has lived in the village for 18 years, said she had bought bottled water since her daughter was born 15 years ago. The family avoids drinking their well water or swimming in McCullom Lake, partially out of fear that failing septic systems could pollute the water.
Shepit said she worried about what the lawsuit could mean for the village.
"If there's a water problem," she said, "nobody's going to want to live here."
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DEFENDANTS NAMED IN THE LAWSUITS:
Rohm and Haas Chemicals, headquartered in Philadelphia, creates specialty materials used in packaging, construction, retail food, automotive and household products. Locally, Rohm and Haas now operates a plant at 5005 Barnard Mill Road in Ringwood.
Morton International, based in Chicago, was bought by Rohm and Haas in 1999. Morton operated the 5005 Barnard Mill Road site until January 2005.
Huntsman, based in Salt Lake City, is a manufacturer of chemicals used in a variety of products. Huntsman Polyurethanes operates a plant at 5015 Barnard Mill Road in Ringwood.
Modine Manufacturing Company, based in Racine, Wis., manufactures heating and cooling components for homes, vehicles, industrial equipment and other areas. Modine operates a plant at 4400 W. Ringwood Road in Ringwood.