A Civil Action

Children in Woburn, Massachusetts began getting leukemia in unusually high numbers in the mid-1960s. At about the same time, the water from two local wells began to taste of chemicals. Despite the complaints of local residents, the wells were not permanently closed until 1979. The site was put on the federal Superfund list, but the leukemia cases continued to mount. Five families from the area hired a law firm in 1980, and in 1982 their attorney filed a complaint. This is the story of that lawsuit, in which the defendants were W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods, who owned the facilities which the plaintiffs claimed caused the solvent trichloroethylene to contaminate the wells. This is a story of how the law is administered, and how, somewhere in that process, justice gets lost. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.