The IBM Corp announced on Thursday that it was willing to pay US$10,000 each to the owners of nearly 500 contaminated homes in the upstate village of Endicott, New York, if the owners give up their right to sue for property damages caused by industrial pollution.
Residents have complained that ventilation systems IBM has installed in their homes since 2002 to prevent toxic vapors from building up in the basements have hurt property values. Last year they asked Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for help in protecting home values.
Spitzer's office negotiated with IBM for a year to develop the payment program, which is modeled after a similar effort in Rochester, New York. Endicott officials think the payments will help revive the village, compensate homeowners for lost real estate values and allow residents to improve their homes, creating spillover economic benefits. Homeowners would not be required to use the money for home improvements.
The owners of the 480 houses and a handful of commercial properties that were offered the ventilation systems are eligible to receive payments. Owners would give up the right to sue for property damages but would still be able to sue for personal injury.
The program could cost IBM more than US$5 million, and will be another costly step in the company's efforts to remediate hazards it helped create in this upstate village just west of Binghamton, where it got its start nearly a century ago. Other manufacturers also contributed to the pollution, but only IBM is helping clean it up.
"My gut reaction is that sounds like a buyout," said Edward Blaine, the director of a community outreach program who has owned a house in there for 31 years.
Blaine, 52, said he was not sure that he would accept the money and give up his right to sue if he cannot sell his house at market value.
"If I had to say yes or no right now I'd probably say no," he said. "I need to think about it."
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS