Residents of Camden, N.J., who were supplied drinking water from a contaminated well field that is now a federal Superfund site are gearing up for legal action. Attorneys sent letters to Camden officials and the Pennsauken Sanitary Landfill - suspected of being one source among many for the well pollution - naming them as targets of a projected class-action lawsuit on behalf of residents. Although no lawsuit has been filed, plaintiff's attorneys are required to notify government bodies to be named in such actions. No warning is required for private companies, dozens of which are possible sources for the hazardous pollutants detected in the early 1970s along the Delaware River.
"For a quarter-century, large portions of the city of Camden received tainted water ?with the knowledge of many agencies and entities," says Keith Walker, a former Camden mayoral candidate who has been organizing public meetings on the issue. "A lot of citizens are aghast." The letters contend that Camden and the landfill depressed property values by not acting to prevent pollutants from getting into public water, and call on them to pay for health monitoring.