LEWES, De. - A judge has approved a $65 million dollar settlement between Mountaire Farms and Millsboro area residents over groundwater contamination.
According to lawyers representing those residents, the total settlement is $205 million dollars; $65 million for residents who were affected, $140 million that Mountaire will spend on a new waste water treatment plant. Attorneys for the residents believe it is the largest nitrate groundwater contamination settlement in history.
"This is we believe it's the single largest settlement in a nitrate ground water contamination case, and we think certainly, this sends a message to really all corporations who are polluting the environment that if they don't comply, they'll be held accountable," said Phillip Federico, of Schochor, Federico, and Statin, P.A., one of the law firms on the case.
For those who live in neighborhoods around the Millsboro plant, this has been years in the making. A few years ago, residents noticed something was not right, complaining of water that smelled and was discolored.
"It had this yellowish color and everything but...the reason being because, coming out of New Jersey and looking at that water, that water was a whole lot different," said Joyce Logan of when she began to notice something wrong.
The lawsuit began in 2018, after Gary Cuppels and his wife were given bottled water by Mountaire to drink instead of their own tap water.
The class action lawsuit swelled to over 700 members, and perhaps thousands more. Logan says the air and ground pollution led to terrible sinus infections, and believes it also played a role in the death of family members.
"With what I heard from what caused it, and all the chemicals and things from the pollution, it's impacted pretty heavy, especially in the last 5 years - losing my husband, and my dog, and my nephew. And those three gone away, and then my own personal health problems," she told us.
Four years ago, David Neal's daughter was pregnant with his granddaughter. He says they had to bathe the baby in bottled water to keep her safe once she was born, and that his daughter remains plagued with conditions he blames on the water pollution.
"She's got ulcerative colitis, she's got hyperactive thyroid, a high heart rate. And she has to take medication for all of that stuff for the rest of her life I guess. It's been crazy," said Neal, who said his family was stuck. "We hated it. But we can't afford to go no where else. We've been there since August of 84, and we just cant afford to up and move anywhere."
Logan says she would give anything to have her family back, but that this settlement gives her hope.
"Maybe these next kids can live through a better life than what we got and we had through this. And that's the most important thing in the world to me - is that it will help the future of our kids as well."
In a statement, Mountaire says "While Mountaire does not believe that it caused any damage to any of the plaintiffs, it chose to settle the case in order to achieve a final resolution and to allow construction of a new wastewater treatment plant to proceed. As part of the agreement, Mountaire has agreed to create a fund to be used for payments to those in the Millsboro vicinity claiming damages as a result of Mountaire’s wastewater treatment practices. The settlement resolves all outstanding class action claims for injuries, damages, or nuisance."
If you believe you have a claim that falls into this class action lawsuit, you can find more information here.