Shell Let Off the Hook on Benzene Pollution
Comparing the carcinogen benzene to unwanted earthworms, the 7th Circuit refused to let Roxana, Ill., property owners sue Shell Oil for pollution.
“There are many things commonly found in soil beneath rural or suburban houses that homeowners would very much like not to enter their home (such as earthworms, fungi, ants, beetles, slugs, radon, chemical residues, thousands of different types of microbe - and groundwater), but as long as there is no danger of such unwanted visitors their underground presence should not affect property values,” Judge Richard Posner wrote for a three-judge panel (parentheses in original). “Benzene in the water supply is one thing; benzene in groundwater that does not feed into the water supply is quite another.”
Roxana, a village of 1,550 in southern Illinois, sued Shell Oil in 2012 for polluting its groundwater and soil with benzene levels as much as 26,000 times greater than allowed by state law.
The complaint cited 18 known spills in the past 25 years from Shell’s nearby refinery, one of the largest in the nation.
More: Courthouse News Service