County Hires Attorneys For Lawsuit Against EnPro

County Hires Attorneys For Lawsuit Against EnPro

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – County supervisors voted unanimously to hire a group of attorneys for a potential lawsuit against EnPro Industries following recent scrutiny from the Mississippi Department of Environ-mental Quality (MDEQ) of a decades old spill at the former Colt Industries /Holley Carburetor site. 

As a litigation matter, the vote was held in executive session during a recessed meeting on April 11, but Board Attorney John Crow provided details to the Herald about the case after the meeting.

“It will take a year to get it together, because of the thousands and thousands of pages of records involved,” Crow explained about the litigation. Crow also said his firm, Crow Martin LLC has joined multiple attorneys to jointly represent numerous plaintiffs including Yalobusha County, Yalo-busha Health Services and a significant number of homeowners who have property in the area affected by the spill of trichloroethylene (TCE) at the BorgWarner site in 1988.  

TCE is a non-flammable, colorless liquid used as a solvent for cleaning metal parts. It is a common ground water contaminant, but can also vaporize and migrate from ground water and through the soil into outside and indoor air in a process called vapor intrusion. In February MDEQ tested multiple sites for vapor intrusion in an area defined as a plume where levels of TCE have been identified as the chemical has migrated north from the original spill. The contaminated area could impact as many as 28 residences and 11 commercial buildings, including the property that encompasses the hospital, nursing home and surrounding buildings. The area extends north from BorgWarner and includes portions of South Main Street, Frostland Drive and Champion Circle. 

Crow identified the attorneys involved in case including Liston and Deas, Grenada attorney Reid Stanford, Texas environmental law firm Ted B. Lyon and Associates, Southaven attorney Craig Treadway and Crow Martin LLC.

“The hospital has got the same lawyers,” Crow added.

Crow said his firm’s involvement came after careful consideration when he was approached by other attorneys involved in the case. 

“I told them I was not going to sue BorgWarner. I am not going to be involved in a suit like that. They said BorgWarner is not going to be involved, it’s EnPro Industries,” Crow told the Herald, explaining that EnPro assumed the liability for the site following multiple ownership changes.

“If they file suit here and it is not removed, they want somebody here the jury is going to know,” Crow explained. “I expect to litigate and I want to litigate because of my feelings about it,” the attorney added, explaining that county and hospital officials were not informed that earlier testing revealed that TCE in the ground had continued to drift north of the original spill. 

“After they cleaned it up, in 2002 they did some more testing and knew it was on the move. The county didn’t hear anything about it and yet we spent all of this money down there, especially the hospital,” Crow said. “The hospital is the biggest issue.”

Crow said the ultimate goal is “to make the dirt safe.” He also explained initial work will include additional testing to ensure the plume is properly identified with more testing scheduled this summer from an independent firm hired by the plaintiff attorneys.

“The board was faced to spend their own money (general fund) and it would bust the budget, or to go with these plaintiff attorneys,” Crow added. He also explained the group of attorneys have secured funding for the case and will pay for all of the testing and legal fees in a contingency fee arrangement with the lawyers receiving a portion of the settlement if they win the case. In this arrangement, Crow said his firm will not bill the county for work on the case, instead his firm will also receive compensation if the lawsuit is successful. 

Crow said that the entire process will likely take years.

“There is so much data and the work starts with piecing it all together,” Crow added.