The Senate ordered a final vote Wednesday on a bill that would allow individuals to sue companies for medical monitoring expenses related to the release of toxic chemicals.
The roll-call vote on an amended version of S.37 was 21-8, with some senators expressing reservations about the bill’s potential impact on the business community.
Bennington’s two senators, Democrats Dick Sears and Brian Campion, sponsored S.37 in response to the contamination of private wells around Bennington with PFOAs from the ChemFab plant in town. Sears, who reported on the bill for the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that residents had grown up thinking their well water was cleaner than the municipal drinking water, only to find out decades later that had not been the case.
During the floor debate, he gestured to a printed map in front of him showing the contaminated area in Bennington. Sears, who has lived in Bennington since 1971, said he and other residents had once been “proud” to own ChemFab stock, adding that they had provided good jobs during the company’s heyday.
“Little did we know that we were damaging the properties and damning the health of people who live there,” he said. “The value of these homes has been decreased — if you Google Bennington, you’re going to find PFOA.”
Sears said he feels polluters should be held responsible for righting harms related to their business practices.
“Where else in law do we require the victims to pay?”
Sears said that under current law, individuals have to prove that the release of a toxic substance caused them harm and that the polluting company was not following accepted industry practices to succeed in court.
Under S.37, businesses with 10 or more full-time employees would be held strictly liable for harm stemming from releases of toxic substances. Individuals who have been exposed to toxic chemicals would have the right to sue companies that released the chemicals for the cost of medical monitoring. Sears said the committee had added in a minimum business size to protect small businesses.
Sears and Campion had sponsored a similar medical monitoring bill last year that was vetoed by the governor.
Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, expressed concern during floor debate that the bill would hold companies liable down the line for contamination even if they had been complying with environmental regulations at the time.
“I’m in favor of passing legislation that’s strong that relates to toxicity … but we don’t know what will happen in the future,” he said. “I think this is a dangerous course to enact this kind of strict liability.”
He also expressed concern that the bill would cause insurance rates to rise significantly for businesses.
Sen. Corey Parent, R-Franklin, who works in the insurance industry, said that he feels the bill “misses the mark” in that insurers can exclude coverage of damages related to certain kinds of pollution — meaning costs related to medical monitoring could fall directly to businesses, not insurers.
Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, an additional sponsor of the bill, rose in support to provide “context” for why the bill is needed. Although the federal government is supposed to regulate toxic chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA grandfathered in 59,000 chemicals when that law was passed in 1976 and has not adequately tested many of the tens of thousands of new chemicals on the market in the decades since, he said.
Sears noted that although the state has reached agreements with the current owner of the ChemFab plant — St. Gobain Performance Plastics — to provide access to clean drinking water for many residents, the Senate will soon be renewing a request for $7 million to extend water lines to Bennington residents not covered under those settlements.
“Your taxpayers — Vermonters — are going to pay for that,” he told the other senators.
