A lawsuit was filed this week against the city of Fort Myers for dumping toxic sludge in the Dunbar community. Filed by Attorney Ralf Brookes, the lawsuit lists four plaintiffs; Deretha Miller, Leutricia Freeman Becker, Ralph Henry, and Noemy Rodriguez. The suit is also on behalf of the other residents of Dunbar.
Four in Your Corner spoke with Miller Tuesday afternoon. She's lived in Dunbar since the 1970's and her family has called the area home ever since
"My kids grew up here and I really love this community", she said.
Miller said that she knew something wasn't quite right about the water in the area for some time, but she could . never quite pinpoint what the problem was. She and her family used well water to do things like laundry, watering the garden, and cooking. She said she would notice that the water would take some time to get clear and boil when she cooked and that sometimes her plants would change to abnormal colors when she watered them.
As she got older, Miller says that she noticed health problem develop, both for her family members and herself. When she first heard about the sludge in the water, she had a strong feeling that was the source of the problem.
“You look back on things that happened in the past and you say, ok that’s what this happened, that’s why my kids got sick when they shouldn’t have got sick."
She and the other people named in the lawsuit all have different reasons for filing. The lawsuit states that the city used a plot of land surrounded by South St., Henderson Ave., Jeffcott St., and Midway Ave. to dump waste that contained arsenic for decades beginning in the 1960s.
For Miller, the biggest source of contention is the lack of information. She says that at the very least, the city should have said something.
“There’s a lot of things that happened that we should have known, way, way before now", she told Fox 4.
The Miller and the other plaintiffs are asking for penalties of $37,500 per day for each day of the violation, since 1979. Brookes says he would like to see the money used for medical monitoring. He says it will help the other people affected by the sludge get assistance for any long lasting effects the sludge may have had on their health.
He told Four in Your Corner, that he hopes something good will eventually come out of the suit.
“It’s very important that the city does the right thing, they haven’t done the right thing in this community for 40 years”, he says.
Four in Your Corner Reached out to Mayor Henderson for comment, but have yet to hear back.
