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Trial Aftermath

Summary

Many of the trial participants and observers of the Woburn Toxic Trial felt that the U.S. Legal system worked below its best, as described by Pacelle (1986), Kennedy (1989), and Harr (1995)....

• What Local and National Journalists Said

Harvard Law School's 1999 "Lessons from Woburn" Conference"

U.S. EPA Superfund Cleanup Efforts and Results

Scientific Research Dealing with the Ground-Water Flow System

Research at MIT

Research at Ohio State University>

Scientific Knowledge

The crux of the jury's decision centered on understanding the hydrogeologic setting, groundwater pathways, and contaminant travel times. Geologists from the plaintiffs, Beatrice, and W. R. Grace each constructed conceptual models of the groundwater system with very different aspects.

Bair (2001), based on the work of Metheny (1998, 2004) estimated the probability of constructing a realistic hydrologic model by W.R. Grace, the plaintiffs, and Beatrice, concluding that the W.R. Grace model was likely most accurate followed by the plaintiff's and then by Beatrice.

(add figure 5.6) However, the jury's verdict was the opposite of that ranking. Today the methods of model calibration are much better established .

Legal precendents?

[link ADD 'Contaminated Verdict"', The AMerican Lawyer, Dec 1986]