Apr 28 2008
Kennedy/Environmental Group Suing Detroit Edison
The Associated Press distributed a story today about an environmental group in Windsor, ONT that is in the process of suing Detroit Edison because of mercury pollution. Excerpts and link to WOOD TV in Grand Rapids:
Kennedy made the comments in announcing that his Riverkeeper group has launched a Canadian lawsuit against Detroit Edison Co. over discharges from one of the utility’s two power plants in Detroit.
High rates of cancer — especially of the thyroid — in Windsor could be traced to the river pollution, Kennedy said.
“That’s assault and battery, and worse because you can die from it,” he said. “What’s the difference if you die from a brain tumor or if you die from a bullet? There’s no difference.”
The lawsuit under the Canadian Fisheries Act accuses the utility of illegal discharges of mercury into the Detroit River, Kennedy said.
The son of the late U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy did not say where or when the suit had been launched.
A spokeswoman from Detroit Edison’s parent company DTE Energy Co. would not comment on ongoing or pending litigation but said she was baffled to hear about the lawsuit.
Lorie Kessler said Detroit Edison was spending $1 billion on equipment to reduce mercury emissions by 2010. She also said the utility is working with the state of Michigan to develop legislation to achieve even further cuts to emissions.
Riverkeeper is based in Tarrytown, N.Y., but Kennedy said there is precedent for cross-border lawsuits over environmental conditions.
In 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency successfully sued Teck Cominico over chemical discharges into the Columbia River at its lead and zinc smelting plant in Trail, B.C. That suit argued the discharge was creating pollution in neighboring Washington state.