Western Environmental Law Center in
Eugene to being a partner at a toxic torts law
firm in Sacramento.
“One of the things I’m learning is there is
evil in the world,” Axline says. But there are
also some industry people who, at the end of
their life, repent and testify against their for-
mer employers. Axline says one such person
told of how Dow chemical stopped discharg-
ing PERC to sewers 60 years ago because of
environmental damage but continued to tell
dry cleaners that it was fine to flush the toxic
chemical down the drain. Now, Axline says
he’s representing cities and drinking water
managers suing because “wells are being shut
down right and left in California” due to
PERC contamination.
Suing for the well managers and not the
actual water drinkers has been easier because
it’s avoided the difficulty of needing to scien-
tifically prove people got sick from PERC,
Axline says.
In another case, Axline sued oil compa-
nies for MTBE pollution to groundwater. In
the 1980s, the oil companies found they
could make billions of dollars by using
MTBE as a cheap additive to gasoline. Axline
says the corporations knew MTBE was dan-
gerous to groundwater, but went to Congress
and pushed legislation to require MTBE in
gas as a way to reduce air pollution. Axline
says the oil companies settled the resulting
lawsuit after spending $70 million in a 10-
month trial.
Recently, oil industry efforts to attach a li-
ability waiver for MTBE to a large energy bill
in Congress resulted in the entire bill failing,
according to Axline.
Siegel marvels at the big bucks corpora-
tions have to defend themselves from toxic
torts. If the pharmaceutical industry ever
sued the petrochemical industry, he jokes, “it
will be the perfect storm for defense attor-
neys.”
ew
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