MA Superfund Sites Still Toxic Nearly 30 Years and $1 Billion Later

"In all his years as an attorney, Jan Schlichtmann has had few lawsuits so profoundly affect him as a1982 case involving eight Woburn families and a public water supply contaminated by toxic chemicals. Profiled in numerous newspaper, television and radio accounts along with the movie 'A Civil Action' starring John Travolta, the lawsuit became a watershed event in environmental politics for Massachusetts and the nation.

Yet today, nearly 30 years after that landmark court case, the wells that supplied both toxic drinking water and a legacy of cancer to Woburn remain contaminated despite a $21 million cleanup effort. And no one, not even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which monitors the site as part of the federal Superfund program, knows whether humans are still being exposed to its witch’s brew of chemicals, federal records show."

Beverly Ford reports for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting May 23, 2011.