Toxic ash case back to court 11/18/2009 Plaintiffs sue US power company, alleging health problems from illegal coal ash dumping.

Eleven plaintiffs from Arroyo Barril, a small village on the Dominican Republic´s northcentral coast, filed a suit against Virginia-based multinational power generating company AES Corporation Nov. 4, allegeding the company dumped 100 million pounds of toxic coal ash onto their Caribbean beach, causing birth defects, respiratory infections and other medical problems.

The suit, filed in the state of Delaware, where the company is registered, follows a 2006 suit brought by the Dominican government that was reportedly settled for $6 million. Villagers said they never saw the money.

Diane Paolicelli, one of the plaintiffs attorneys, said in a release that two children had died from “catastrophic birth defects”; another had no arms and a fourth child was born with his stomach outside of his body.

The US company allegedly dumped the toxic coal ash waste in Arroyo Barril in 2003 and 2004. The heavy-metal material was from its Puerto Rico plant, the complaint said, and caused major respiratory problems in the villagers.

The suit also alleges that the company said the material was not toxic.

Coal ash waste holds metals such as arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and vanadium.

"AES turned a rural, natural oceanfront hill into an environmental crime scene," said Stephen J. Phillips, name partner of Levy Phillips & Konigsberg, which represents the plaintiffs. –Latinamerica Press.