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Companies attempt to dismiss lead contamination lawsuit

By  Associated Press
   
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The site at the corner of 151st and Kennedy where the USS Lead Smelter and Refinery once stood, now part of a Superfund site in East Chicago on September 4, 2014. | Jim Karczewski/for Sun-Times Media

EAST CHICAGO, Ind. — Companies taken to court over property damage from the contaminated USS Lead Superfund site in East Chicago have asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.

The (Northwest Indiana) Timesreports that homeowners filed the lawsuit last year that alleges the companies’ decades-long operations near homes forced property values to plummet.

The lawsuit lists Atlantic Richfield Co., its successor Tesoro Corp.; E.I. DuPont De Nemours and Co., and its successor The Chemours Co.; and U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, as defendants in the case.

The companies argue that the Environmental Protection Agency notified plaintiffs of contamination as early as 2010 and entered into a consent decree in 2014, forcing companies to pay for cleanup.

Each homeowner seeks damages in excess of $75,000, alleging negligence, trespass and nuisance.

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