Water win.In a major victory for private water companies, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Superior Court Judge Carl West last week dismissed American States Water Co. as a defendant in 19 consolidated lawsuits that alleged the water company provided contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. water to 2,000 residents of the San Gabriel San Gabriel (săn gā`brēəl), city (1990 pop. 37,120), Los Angeles co., SW Calif.; inc. 1913. Fabric, furniture, paper products, tools, and aircraft parts are manufactured. and Pomona valleys. The class-action lawsuits date back to 1997 when one of the largest cases, Adler vs. Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Water Co., a subsidiary of American States, was filed. The plaintiffs alleged that the company provided contaminated water from wells located on a federal environmental Superfund site. The plaintiffs claimed the water was contaminated with solvents used by aerospace manufacturers, notably Gencorp Aerojet in Azusa. None of the corporate polluters have been dismissed from the case. "This is a very big win for the industry," said Jim Gallagher, vice president of customer service for American States. "We had been expecting this would happen for some time now." West dismissed American Water from the case when plaintiffs were unable to demonstrate that the water company had violated any federal or state standard on contaminant contaminant /con·tam·i·nant/ (kon-tam´in-int) something that causes contamination. contaminant something that causes contamination. levels, Gallagher said. The case has been logjammed for years by a variety of procedural issues. The defendants claimed individuals could not sue them if they had complied with all requirements and fell under the jurisdiction of the state Public Utilities Commission. The PUC (Public Utility Commission) A regulatory body in every state in the U.S. that governs public utilities within its jurisdiction such as electricity, gas, oil, sewer, water, transportation and telephone service. Some states call it the Public Service Commission (PSC). began investigating the private water companies' knowledge of groundwater contamination in 1998 and found American States in compliance with all standards, Gallagher said. |
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