Jonathan Harr\'s a Civil Action\'

Jonathan Harr's "A Civil Action' and Environmental Law

In the book a Civil Action by Jonathan Harr the author explored a lawsuit, which took nine years to complete, regarding the tragic consequences of exposure to toxic waste. There were deaths from childhood leukemia, skin inflammations, queasiness, irritated eyes, along with additional illnesses. The lawsuit was filed by eight families who lived in Woburn, Massachusetts against two companies, W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. The grievance asserted that these businesses were responsible for illnesses and deaths linked to trichloroethylene (TCE) pollution of the water supply. When reading this book one gains an admiration for ecological epidemiology and the intricacy of coming to an end when only a small number of people are affected. Medical specialists, public health experts, geologists, civil engineers, government organizations, and the aptitude and dynamic inspiration of the influenced families and their lawyers were all essential to found the reliability of the suit (Harr, Jonathan a Civil Action, 2010).

Unfortunately, in the end, the monetary influence and stonewalling of the businesses and the prejudice of the judge for one of the defense lawyers brought about a verdict for the defense. In the end the plaintiff's lawyer had to file for bankruptcy. Only when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chose to begin a clean up and filed a claim in opposition to W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods to reimburse a share of the cost, was any resemblance of justice attained. It has been said that the EPA clean up project will take fifty years, and it is thought that it will even then be unattainable to rid the site of TCE all together (Harr, Jonathan a Civil Action, 2010).

This book is a perfect example of why certain rules and regulations have been put into place in order to protect people against harm. One of these laws is that of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) which was passed in order to guard the quality of drinking water in the U.S. This regulation centers on all waters essentially intended for drinking, whether from above ground or underground sources. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the major federal law that guarantees the quality of drinking water for Americans. Under SDWA, EPA sets values for the quality of drinking water and administers the states, districts, and water providers who put into practice those values. SDWA empowers the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to position national health base values for drinking water in order to guard in opposition to both naturally happening and man made pollutants that may be found in drinking water. The EPA, the states, and the various water systems then work together in order to make sure that these values are attained (Cross and LeRoy, 2008).