RENO, Nevada (AP)--Neighbors have a toxic mine in Northern Nevada threw a class action suit against BP America and Atlantic Richfield Co. them intentionally and negligently the level of contamination from the abandoned site conceal for decades leaking filed.
The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Reno on Monday is a minimum of $5 million for at least 100 inhabitants in the rural town of the city where the old Anaconda copper mine opened in 1941.
The applicants say, well you are, once contaminated with uranium, arsenic and other metals in a plume of groundwater for drinking water was slowly from the site migrated, the 6 square miles-an area the same size approximately 3,000 Fu?ballfeldern--covering about 65 miles southeast of Reno.
The lawsuit says that even after informants, previously secret records documenting the dangers to publish work with Government refused the corporations, and federal regulators try to clean the radioactive and other hazardous waste the last 10 years.
"Destroyed the water supply to this community, and now it's time to clean it." Is there way to the contamination this people's land and its wells, ", said Steven English, a lawyer, made for the inhabitants of the complaint."
"A mother should not have your child to say you can not turn the spigot because your water is dangerous." "This not acceptable is in this country", he said the associated press on Tuesday.
The lawsuit, said the company knew or should have known that their discharge of toxic and hazardous substances would contaminate neighboring properties, air, water, groundwater and the environment. You said you ' deliberately allowed toxic and hazardous substances to enter and to stay "The neighbour country."
"Despite their knowledge of the serious health and environmental effects associated with exposure to hazardous substances and despite jobs and Alerts form intentionally masked the true extent of contamination, health and environmental authorities, (BP and ARCO), thereby enable (you) take all appropriate measures to properly remove of dangerous and toxic substances or the dangers created by its publication to mitigate discharge, storage, handling, processing, disposal and dumping of toxic and hazardous substances, to avoid" the suit said.
Tom Mueller, a spokesman for BP America, said Tuesday evening that the company officials have had no chance to review the complaint and had no immediate comment.
Fueled by demand after the second world war, Anaconda produced almost 1.75 billion pounds of copper from 1952-78 in the mine which U.S. Highway 95 Mason Valley along the irrigated agricultural oasis in the area otherwise largely barren high desert.
Environmental protection agency has established the US over the years, the uranium as a by-product of the processing of copper was produced and that of the radioactive waste first dirt Valley ponds, this - in contrast to modern Teichen-chipped-tipped leaked into the groundwater.
Water have provided free officials for BP and its subsidiary, Atlantic Richfield, Anaconda Copper co. in 1978 who bought bottled for all residents, who want it in recent years. But you have insisted that uranium enters the region of course ground, and until recently argued, there was no way to prove that half a century of processing of metals are pollution was responsible.
A new wave of EPA tests reported in November 2009 the associated press, however, found that 79 percent of well north of me dangerous concentrations of uranium tested have arsenic or both, that the water unsafe to drink.
"You have evidence now groundwater mine affected," said Steve Acree, a highly respected hydrogeologist for the EPA in Oklahoma brought test results to investigate AP currently in that.
Monitoring had levels of uranium more than 10 times the legal drinking water standard well half a mile away. The mine wells tested in the standard as high as 100 times in an area where ore with sulfuric acid and other toxic chemicals in ponds, unlined was processed.
Though not well understood the health effects of certain levels, says the EPA of long-term exposure to high uranium in drinking water can cancer cause kidney damage.
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