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Emerson Electric Co. v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Co.8/30/2004
the contamination at the site. These releases allegedly occurred in 1975 and 1977 or 1978. Republic disputes this claim based on the fact that plaintiffs' corporate representative testified in a deposition that he could not recall any abrupt or accidental discharges having occurred at the Vernon site.
2. The Louisiana Owned Site
Emerson's Poulan/Weed Eater Division (Poulan/Weed Eater) manufactured chainsaws and consumer lawn trimmers at its Shreveport, Louisiana, facility from 1971 until 1983. In 1986, Emerson sold Poulan/Weed Eater to White Consolidated Industries (WCI). Subsequently, WCI, with the assistance of its environmental consultant, discovered soil and groundwater contamination caused by heavy metals and chlorinated solvents, including TCE and TCA, at the site.
From 1971 to 1980, Poulan/Weed Eater operated a permitted wastewater treatment system that was designed to treat heavy metal and solvent wastes from the facility's manufacturing operations. Waste streams from Poulan/Weed Eater industrial processes contained cyanide, heavy metals and industrial solvents (TCA and TCE). These streams passed through a treatment facility and were separated to create a sludge that, depending on the time period, was directed to one of three industrial waste lagoons. The first lagoon was used from 1971 to 1975, the second lagoon was used from 1975 to 1979, and the third lagoon was used from 1979 to 1980. The lagoons were intended to hold the sludge permanently, while any water remaining in the sludge was intended to evaporate into the atmosphere or to percolate into the subsurface. The remaining treated water was discharged into a sanitary waste lagoon. Wastes from Poulan/Weed Eater's plating operations were sent to a series of underground tanks for treatment and then were pumped into one of the lagoons, where metal sludge would accumulate. On-site settling lagoons were discontinued in August of 1980 and a new continuous wastewater treatment system was installed.
During the years the manufacturing facility was in operation, TCA and TCE were used in a degreasing unit and were kept in an aboveground storage tank located on a concrete pier or slab outside the plant building. That tank was taken out of service and removed in 1983. Acetone was used to clean the chainsaws and was stored in five-gallon cans in an oil storage shed in the back of the plant. Chromic acid was used in the plating operations, and cyanide was used in the heat-treating system. Spent TCA and TCE, as well as acetone and toluene (used during the installation of handlebars on the chainsaws), were stored in an underground storage tank. That tank was removed from the site in 1986. As noted above, used chromates and cyanide were pumped into treatment tanks, and then the sludge was pumped into one of the industrial lagoons.
The principal contaminants discovered at the site were TCA and TCE. The primary source of TCE in the groundwater was identified to be the three industrial waste lagoons. Contamination was also discovered at the location of the aboveground TCA/TCE storage tank, the concrete pier, and the underground solvent waste tank.
Plaintiffs claim that some contamination may have been accidental and point to two separate incidents in 1973 and 1974, when magnesium, used to build chainsaws, spontaneously combusted as a result of inadvertent contact with water. With respect to the 1973 incident, the combusting magnesium resulted in a large fire and explosion that destroyed a solvent storage area and caused the death of an employee. The 1974 incident occurred in the same general area of the facility as the 1973 incident.
3. The Mississippi Owned Site
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