Exxon Mobil to appeal $1 bln Louisiana radiation fine
Date: 24-May-01
Country: USA
Author: Timothy Gardner
A New Orleans civil jury ordered Exxon on Tuesday to pay $1.06 billion in clean-up, lost property, and punitive damages to former Louisiana state District Judge Joseph Grefer and his family.
The Grefers leased 33 acres of land in Harvey, just south of New Orleans, for roughly three decades to now-defunct Intracoastal Tubular Services, which cleaned Exxon field pipes on the land. The pipes were contaminated with radioactive mud. The family filed suit in 1997.
Exxon did not deny the contamination and said it offered to clean up the land but the Grefers declined its offers.
The jury designated $56 million of the fine for cleaning up but the amount is more than 50 times the assessed value of the Grefer property, Exxon said in a statement.
The oil company claims that less than 1 percent of the land contains radiation levels above naturally occurring levels. "We will continue to pursue all legal channels to rectify this outrageous verdict," Exxon said in a statement.
