INSURERS TO PAY $50M IN JACKSONVILLE INCINERATOR CLEANUP

Insurance companies formerly insuring Jacksonville, Fla. will pay $50 million, while the city will pay $25 million, in the $75 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2003 by local residents. The city settled the lawsuit claiming residents were exposed to lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxins, including toxic ash produced by municipal trash incinerators the city operated from the 1910s to the 1960s.

The suit also sought damages for civil rights violations because the incinerators and ash dump burial sites were in predominantly black neighborhoods. The city agreed to expedite portions of a plan to replace contaminated soil at four ash sites.

Provisions of the settlement include expediting portions of a plan to replace contaminated soil at four ash sites and relocating some residents from the most polluted sites.