A district judge in Muscatine approved a $50 million settlement Tuesday in a class action pollution case.
Some 15,000 neighbors of the Grain Processing Corporation’s plant can qualify for individual payouts after GPC was accused of polluting south Muscatine with haze, odors and particles. Bob Weatherman is one of the residents involved in the lawsuit. “You can’t enjoy your property when things like this happen. So…it’s a deprivement of your rights. So I think they’ve made a good decision in pointing that out to industry,” Weatherman says.
Those who saw the greatest impacts could get as much as $16,000 each. The judge called the settlement extraordinary and lawyers say the money could change lives. Sarah Siskind was on the legal team for the neighbors. She says environmentalists across the country have been watching the case.
“People are looking to this case now as an inspiration for other cases as a tool for environmental remediation for ordinary people who leave near an industrial area,” Siskind says.
Residents who lived within a mile and a half of the plant between 2007 and 2017 have until March 19th to apply for a payout.
(Thanks to Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)