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Boyd v. Allied Signal12/30/2004
o don protective clothing and breathing equipment, and to direct their hose's water stream into the escaping vapor. He had no knowledge of any complaints of illness or injury by any firefighter on the scene.
The testimony of Jeff Meyers of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was presented by deposition. At the time of the incident, he was a DEQ field supervisor. He testified that the first DEQ representative on the scene arrived at 1:30 p.m. on August 2, and that he was personally present from about that time until 9:00 a.m. the following morning. The DEQ response team worked on the north side of the interstate right-of-way during the whole incident, due to the prevailing wind direction. Mr. Meyers did not allow his team members to enter the vapor cloud itself to take measurements. The team utilized Draeger testing tubes for hydrofluoric acid, a byproduct of BF sub3 and water, since they had no testing equipment specific to BF sub3 . The first Draeger reading was taken at 8:58 p.m. Based upon the periodic Draeger readings and their observations, the DEQ team believed that the water spray was containing the BF sub3 and that all of the gas released and its byproduct compounds were dissolved into and diluted by the water runoff. No readings were taken after the last reading at 12:14 a.m. on August 3, which Mr. Meyers attributed to the fact that the water spray was then probably containing all vapor coming from the leak. At that time, any hydrofluoric acid in the water runoff had been reduced to an undetectable level. He classified the leak as a "major incident." However, he was unaware of any DEQ employee claiming symptoms attributed to the leak.
Other Factual Testimony Relating to the Geographic Limits
Theresa Pennington testified that her residence was located on the corner of Seracedar Drive and Lebanon Street, several blocks to the north of the intersection of I-12 and Cedarcrest. At the time of the incident, she was home recuperating from knee surgery. Upon awakening from sleep, she was coughing and experienced a burning sensation in her eyes. She noticed that a message had been left on her telephone answering machine. The caller informed her of the release at issue and advised her to turn off her air conditioner and to either stay inside or leave her residence. She turned off her air conditioner, but eventually chose to leave her residence at the urging of relatives. (It was later determined, however, that Ms. Pennington's residence was located slightly outside the actual limits of the "shelter in place" zone.) Ms. Pennington also testified that within a few weeks of the incident, she and some of her neighbors experienced damage to trees, in the form of dying limbs and browning of foliage.
Plaintiffs' Expert Testimony and Reports
Bert Wilkins, Jr., Ph.D., was called to testify on behalf of the plaintiffs as an expert in the field of chemical engineering. He testified that he was retained to analyze the leak to determine its flow rate over time and the total amount of the chemical leak. He was also asked to determine the effect of the water applied to mitigate the chemical released. He expressed no opinions on the extent of the atmospheric dispersal or the toxicological effects of the chemical, as such were beyond the scope of his expertise.
Dr. Wilkins explained that his first objective was to determine the leak rate over its duration of approximately fourteen hours, a task complicated by the fact that the exact size of the hole through which the gas escaped was initially unknown. A further complicating factor was the fact that the leak rate changed over time with changes in pressure and temperature inside the pressuriz
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