Erin Brockovich Helps File Tumor Lawsuit

A lawsuit filed with environmental activist Erin Brockovich's help accuses a tannery of contaminating northwest Missouri farm land and causing a rash of brain tumors in the Cameron area.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that sludge from Prime Tanning Corp. of St. Joseph contained high levels of hexavalent chromium. The carcinogenic chemical is the same one that prompted a $333 million settlement from Pacific Gas & Energy in 1996 for exposing a California town to the chemical.

The suit claims that Prime Tanning gave sludge from its plant to farmers in four northwest Missouri counties to use on their fields as fertilizer. Kansas City-based National Beef Packing Co. acquired Prime Tanning Leathers Co. last month and renamed it National Beef Leathers Co., which also is named in the suit.

Neither Prime Tanning nor National Beef Packing immediately returned calls seeking comment.

The lawsuit, filed in Clinton County Circuit Court in Cameron, was filed on behalf of William Kemper of Cameron and Janet Lasher of Gallatin.

Kemper's wife, Karen, died last May at the age of 44 from complications from a brain tumor. Lasher was diagnosed in February with lung cancer that has spread to her brain. Both plaintiffs were exposed to hexavalent chromium from the sludge because of their proximity to its application on farmland, the suit contends.

Brian Madden, who is handling the case for Kansas City law firm Wagstaff & Cartmell, said he expects more plaintiffs to come forward as the case progresses.

"The reach of it is bigger than Cameron, for sure," Madden said.

According to the lawsuit, Prime Tanning used hexavalent chromium to remove hair from hides in the tanning process, and the resulting waste product was collected as sludge.

The lawsuit says the company told the state of Missouri that the sludge did not contain hexavalent chromium. Thousands of tons of the sludge containing the chemical was applied on farm ground in Andrew, Buchanan, DeKalb and Clinton counties, the suit says, as a way for Prime Tanning to avoid paying for disposing of it in a landfill.

Madden said the investigator who did work for Brochovich's case in 1996 led the investigation in the northwest Missouri case. Attorney Thomas V. Girardi of Los Angeles, who was made famous by the 2000 movie "Erin Brockovich," also is helping.

Attorneys, the investigator and Brockovich were conducting a meeting in Cameron on Wednesday evening to discuss the lawsuit and results of the investigation.

At the meeting, Brockovich tried to assuage fears over the news of the health risks of hexavalent chromium, but emphasized the importance of taking action.

"I don't want everyone to panic and feel like you have to move out of Cameron tomorrow. You don't," Brockovich said. "This is a processes that needed to stop yesterday. We cannot be allowing waste from a tannery to be applied to your farms as any type of fertilizer that jeopardizes public health and safety."