Editor’s note: This commentary is by Kelly Coleman, who is program director for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, based in western Massachusetts, and board chair of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. She grew up in Vermont and now lives in Brattleboro with her husband and two children.
[T]he discovery of PFOA in Bennington wells was a wake-up call: Vermonters are not immune to the health and environmental dangers posed by toxic chemicals. And, likewise Vermonters should not have to bear the burden of toxic contamination alone.
Legislation (S.197) introduced by Sens. Dick Sears and Brian Campion would provide Vermonters more legal tools to ensure that we are not the only ones paying a price.
Current law is tipped in favor of protecting corporations rather than providing much-needed assistance to people impacted by toxic pollution.
It is extremely difficult for Vermonters who have been harmed by toxic exposure – like our neighbors in Bennington — to hold large and powerful corporations such as Saint Gobain accountable through litigation. Corporate defendants have tremendous financial resources and teams of attorneys to defend their company from being found legally responsible for harm caused by a chemical release.
And the burden of proof lies with the families who are impacted. Vermonters must prove that the company released toxic chemicals into the environment and that those released chemicals caused them harm. In order to recover damages, Vermonters must further prove that the chemical release was the result of negligence.
Incredibly, this means that even if you can prove that a company released a toxic substance, and that the chemical caused you demonstrable harm (no small feat), if the company was following their permit requirements and applicable rules and standards, then the company is off the hook.
The result? State taxpayers or the person suffering from health problems or property damage from the toxic exposure must bear the costs, rather than the entity that profited off the chemical’s use.
S.197 takes steps to correct this inequity by holding toxic polluters responsible for harm caused by chemical releases regardless of whether the polluter was negligent. Under S.197, if a you release dangerous chemicals into the environment and you contaminate wells or cause Vermonters to become sick, you will be held responsible.
In addition, S.197 allows Vermonters to obtain access to courts in order to fight for compensation to cover medical testing associated with high levels of chemicals caused by a toxic release. Currently, Vermonters with high levels of chemical contamination in their bodies cannot recover costs for expensive medical testing – unless and until the contamination results in a disease.
S.197 recognizes that this is simply unfair. Why should Vermonters who have suffered chemical contamination through no fault of their own bear these costs? Why should Vermonters have to deal with medical bills or health insurance increases, potentially for years, until they actually manifest a serious disease?
In Bennington, the state has conducted some of the medical monitoring of PFOA for people with elevated levels of the chemical. However, one Bennington resident testified in the Legislature that her children have moved out of state and therefore are no longer being tested by the state. This Vermonter rightly asks: Why should her children bear the cost and responsibility of expensive medical bills instead of the polluter who caused the contamination of their bodies? In S.197, legislators also asked why should the state and taxpayers pay these costs while the entity that used dangerous chemicals, caused a toxic release, and harmed Vermonters, is off the hook?
S.197 would begin to slightly tip the playing field back toward Vermonters who have been harmed rather than protecting polluters. The bill has passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and heads to the Senate floor soon. I hope the entire Senate will follow the strong leadership of Sens. Sears and Campion and pass S.197. This bill provides Vermonters with much needed tools so that families are not paying the cost of toxic contamination alone.
