Bailey Glasser Defeats Occidental Petroleum’s Motions to Dismiss Toxic Tort Lawsuit

On behalf of two clients poisoned by toxic clouds of incinerated chemical-laden wastewater in Petrolia, Pennsylvania, Bailey & Glasser, LLP (“Bailey Glasser”) successfully defeated two Motions to Dismiss (in Pennsylvania these motions are called “demurrers”) in a lawsuit pending in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The matter will now proceed to discovery.

The litigation team in this case is led by partner Michael “Mickey” Robb, partner Travis A. Prince, and associate Timothy Leckenby. The defendants in the case include Beazer USA, INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, Koppers, Inc., Interstate Chemical Company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, and Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and others.

The facts of this case are as follows:

The Petrolia Chemical Plant (owned by the Occidental Chemical Corporation) was one of the biggest manufacturers of resorcinol until 2017. The biggest use of resorcinol is in the rubber and tire industry as an adhesive to bond rubber to steel. The plant manufactured approximately 50 million pounds of resorcinol every year.

To create resorcinol, the plant generated million of gallons of wastewater every year which was collected and incinerated in a high pressure reactor. Because various chemicals, salts, and chlorides were in each batch of wastewater it incinerated, the process created dangerous toxins in the form of dioxins and dibenzofurans to exit the reactor’s smoke stack which ironically is lower in height than almost all of the homes that surround the plant in the small, industrial town.

To read the Amended Complaint and learn more, please visit this link.