Can Dunbar residents sue Fort Myers over former toxic dump?

FORT MYERS, Fla. Residents near a former toxic dumping ground in Dunbar are concerned that their health may have been negatively impacted.

“When you have people and their lives and their health at risk, you have to re-mediate the problem, no matter what the cost is,” said Joe North, a Fort Myers-based attorney and Dunbar native.

Although residents are angry they weren’t warned about the presence of arsenic, it doesn’t necessarily justify a lawsuit, according to North.

“What we always look for is causation,” he said. “So if someone has a health condition that is causally related to the poisons on that property, then they do have a cause of action.”

However, some residents have already brought up previous health issues they worry could be related.

“I don’t believe in coincidences, so when you have people who live across the street from this parcel of land coming down with cancer, there’s probably some connection there,” North said.

North added that the city can still be sued decades after the dumping stopped.

“I don’t think it’s too late to bring a lawsuit, for anyone,” he said. “The residents of that community had no reason to know that they had a cause of action, so the statute of limitations would not begin to run until they could appreciate that they could have possibly been injured by something on that property.”

No one has come forward yet with plans to sue, but North believes it’s only a matter of time.

“After one person brings forth an action, there will probably be more lawsuits to follow,” he said.

A fence should be up around the property by Monday.