Some citizens of Ringwood, New Jersey believe that they and many others are sick because they grew up on a toxic waste dump.
(Thomas E. Franklin/The Record)
Kennedy said Ford's current defense is similar. The company does not deny the dumping, though it points out that it was legal at the time. But Ford does deny that there is any correlation between that dumping and the Ringwood residents' health problems.
"From what I've seen, I'm not a health expert, but from what I've seen, they've found no higher incidence of cancer or anything else here besides lung cancer," said John Holt, a spokesman for Ford. "That could be based on smoking and other habits. We haven't found any medical connection of paint sludge causing any medical problems."
A walk down one Ringwood street, Van Dunk Street, in November, found someone in every single house except one who had died from cancer or had cancer according to Vivian Milligan, one of the residents now suing Ford.
When asked if this was a coincidence, Holt replied, "As I said, the state records show that not to be the case. The incidence of cancer here is not any higher here than in Ringwood or any other area."
But Alan Steinberg, the head of the regional Environmental Protection Agency, said there have been no comprehensive health studies undertaken in Ringwood to determine who is sick and why. He said this is in part because the people in Ringwood are reluctant to come forward.
"I understand the reluctance, and I don't blame them, but this is the only way anyone will get to the bottom of this," Steinberg said.
So why are locals reluctant to cooperate? They have a general distrust of the government. The explanation goes back to 1983, when Ringwood was deemed so contaminated it was put on the EPA's superfund list. Ford was directed to clean up the area.
In 1994, 11 years later, Ford told the EPA the cleanup was done. It reported that the water was clean and the EPA agreed. Ringwood was removed the superfund list, but not all residents were happy about that.
Bob Spiegel soon brought the story to the local paper. Reporter Jan Barry and a team from The Record of New Jersey worked for years piecing together the story of what had happened in Ringwood.
"So we did our own investigation and went and looked at the original field reports from the DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] and the EPA from the early '80s as to why they created a superfund site," Barry said. "They indicated where they saw paint sludge. I went out with a camera and found paint sludge in the same places. It was still there."
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