Monday, Oct. 06, 1986

American Notes Massachusetts

"No matter what compensation you get, it doesn't replace a life, and it doesn't buy you health and happiness," said Joan Zona of Woburn, Mass., whose son Michael, 8, died of leukemia in 1974. The Zonas and eleven other families agreed last week to accept a reported $8 million from W.R. Grace & Co., ending four years of litigation in which they charged that Grace had dumped cancer- causing wastes on land near a Woburn aquifer, polluting two wells and leading to six deaths. The settlement, said an attorney for the families, was a "recognition by Grace of responsibility" for Woburn's tragedy.

Not so, declared a Grace attorney. The company still denies it polluted the wells or caused any illness. Grace settled, he said, only because it was less expensive than fighting the case. The settlement also ruled out the possibility that a jury would reach a precedent-setting verdict holding a corporation liable for injury caused by pollution.