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26 AUG 04: THE RED AND BLACK
A federal jury ruled Wednesday Continental Carbon must pay $20.7 million in damages, for pollution from a Phenix City plant. So have you figured out our title? All that "carbon black" will give this company red ink.
Eight jurors in Opelika decided Continental Carbon and its parent company in Taiwan are liable for pollution damage in parts of Columbus. I may never buy chocolate chip ice cream south of Macon Road again....
The city of Columbus was one of the plaintiffs against Continental Carbon. Mayor Bob Poydasheff issued a statement praising the city for taking on the company. Of course, the damages will be passed on properly -- to residents filing liability suits against the city.
Mayor Poydasheff and City Manager Carmen Cavezza testified air pollution from Continental Carbon covered the roof of the Civic Center. Defense attorneys were skeptical about this. Why wasn't any soot found on the Columbus Catfish batting
helmets?
South Columbus homeowner Owen Ditchfield was also a plaintiff in the "soot suit." He told WRBL this was a win for "the little guy." If Ditchfield had called himself a little guy a few weeks ago, he might not have lost the School Board
election.
The big winner in terms of damages seems to be Action Marine on Victory Drive. The company claimed carbon black from Continental Carbon's plant covered its boats, and made them impossible to sell. Don't you wonder now about those gold speckles in the fiberglass shells of some boats -- and where they came from?
(The strange thing is that Carl Gregory Dodge is also on Victory Drive - and it did NOT take part in this pollution case. Maybe the managers decided they would be hypocrites, in light of their gas-guzzling SUV's.)
Continental Carbon officials said in videotaped depositions they knew the Phenix City plant had pollution problems for years -- but the bosses in Taiwan rejected their requests for improvements. Don't they have a lot of nerve? Let's see if Fort Benning comes to THEIR rescue, if mainland China invades.
The attorneys for Continental Carbon tried to argue the carbon black findings were based on flawed samples. For instance, what if the soot was collected after a thunderstorm? Well, the rain probably would drop it onto the boat that much harder....
One Continental Carbon lawyer told WRBL the $20.7 million damage award was excessive. Oh really?! In some west Alabama counties, the jury might have left out that decimal point.
A federal judge did NOT allow the Continental Carbon case to be a class-action lawsuit - so residents of South Columbus have to sue the company on their own. There are exceptions to this, of course. The managers of Port Columbus merely have to point their cannon toward the Phenix City plant and fire.
. Regular blog readers will recall a lot of black soot has collected on my humble Honda in recent years [22 Feb]. Based on this case, I suppose I could sue Continental Carbon now for big money. But I think I'd be more satisfied if the managers came to my home, and spent all weekend hand-washing my car -- no hoses allowed.
Now let's wash our hands of this whole thing, and check other items from Wednesday:
+ The main Columbus library has posted a sign saying it will not accept any "used books" after September 6, as it prepares for the move to a new building. Talk about emptying the shelves! Doesn't any book checked out more than once qualify as used?
+ Dr. Carole Rutland revealed to the Ledger-Enquirer she's leaving the Space Science Center, to take a job promoting Chattahoochee Valley tourism. This could be quite a tough adjustment. After all those years of stargazing, she'll have to focus on man-made landmarks now.
+ Jimmy Wetzel threw in the towel, and conceded a Phenix City Council runoff race to Ray Bush. Wetzel was the man with the Bobby Peters look-alike campaign signs - so apparently enough voters were literate enough to notice the difference.
+ The Walgreen's store on Wynnton Road had a sale on bags of Uncle Ray's potato chips - bags with the Ten Commandments printed on the back! I'll assume Ray is the uncle of Roy Moore....
+ The Columbus Catfish climbed out of an 11-3 hole, and beat Augusta 14-12. For swimming upstream this well, they should be called the Salmon for the rest of the season.
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