Iberville grand jury seeks records from Dow

July 4, 2002, Thursday ACADIANA EDITION SECTION

by MIKE DUNNE

A special grand jury investigating pollution problems in Iberville Parish has subpoenaed documents from Dow Chemical. Donna Carville, a spokeswoman for the company, confirmed Dow received a subpoena for a Sept. 10 meeting of the grand jury. She said
Dow plans to comply with the subpoena. Carville said the Dow officials have met with the staff of 18th Judicial District Attorney Ricky Ward and shared with prosecutors the same information the company has given the public about what it knows about groundwater contamination in north Plaquemine.

Ward created the special grand jury in January and appointed Beau Brock, legal counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigation unit, as an assistant district attorney. Dow is under the microscope for two things.

First, many suspect it is the source of vinyl chloride that has contaminated groundwater in north Plaquemine. The company steadfastly denies it is the source. The contamination came to light last year when the Department of Health and Hospitals informed residents of the Myrtle Grove Trailer Park on Bayou Jacob Road that their drinking water was contaminated with vinyl chloride.

State tests in 1997 and 1998 showed contamination, but residents were not notified until March 2001, after a third round of tests. Also, a former Dow employee and three former contract workers who cleaned vinyl chloride tank cars at the company allege that in the 1980s, wash water from 25,000-gallon vessels was routinely dumped on the ground instead of into a sump or treatment system. Dow said last week that its own investigation had failed to confirm those allegations.