Due to the similarity between two lawsuits filed by local residents near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, only one will go forward, a federal court ruled last week.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers in the Southern District of Ohio ruled Jan. 3 that a case filed by plaintiffs led by Ray Pritchard in June brings basically the same set of allegations as a suit brought in May by Ursula McGlone and others.
Both cases seek to assert Ohio common law claims connected to alleged releases of radioactive and toxic substances from the DOE cleanup site. Both seek to establish a class-action lawsuit to represent all landowners, residents, and former residents within a 7-mile radius of the site, the magistrate said in her ruling.
Plaintiffs in both cases claim their health has been endangered and affected landowners saw their property values hurt because DOE contractors at Portsmouth failed to protect the community from contamination. The defendant companies say they have complied with federal environmental and safety standards.
Magistrate Judge Deavers, who is handling preliminary motions in the suits for U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, said it would be impractical to simply consolidate the cases for various reasons – including the fact McGlone has already modified the initial complaint to include federal claims.
As a result, the Pritchard case will be put on hold and could be bound by any final resolution of the other case.
Both suits came after public disclosure of potential contamination at Zahn’s Corner Middle School near the Portsmouth Site. The McGlone case was filed by two Pike County families, one with a child in a middle school that closed May 13 after a Northern Arizona University analysis said there appears to be contamination.
Students were subsequently relocated to other schools during the current academic year and the Energy Department, which has found no potential threat to human health and safety, agreed to underwrite the cost of more air and dust sampling at the school.
Centrus Energy and other defendants will then have until Feb. 28 to respond to the amended complaint. Other vendors named in the litigation include Bechtel Jacobs; Uranium Disposition Services; LATA/Parallax Portsmouth; Mid-America Conversion Services; and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth.
