Estefanos Law has experience in helping landowners recover damages from environmental harm to their properties. Real Property can be contaminated from numerous sources, including contamination from extracting oil and natural gas, from storing or moving harmful contaminants, or from the intentional, reckless, or accidental dumping or spilling of toxins or other harmful or foreign substances.
Real Property contamination can cause harm not only to the value of the land, but also to the health and safety of people using or living on or around contaminated land. The purpose of litigation is to:
- Compensate the landowners, businesses or residents for damages suffered;
- Restore the contaminated property to a suitable, safe condition; and
- Protect the area from possible future harm caused by the contamination.
Common Sources of Contamination in San Diego
The waste produced by some oil companies and other heavy industrial operations may also contain harmful metals, salts, hydrocarbons, and toxic chemicals. Fracking, for example, can use proven or possible carcinogens, cancer-causing agents, or other hazardous water or air pollutants.
Mass agriculture is another cause of soil and water contamination. Modern pesticides and fertilizers are full of toxic chemicals that cannot be naturally broken down or absorbed. They can cause damage to the composition of soil in addition to chronic health problems in humans.
Improper disposal of biological waste and sewage can cause soil and water to be contaminated with harmful toxins and chemicals. While waste disposal plants, sewage systems, and landfills attempt to alleviate this problem, toxins and other harmful substances are not always disposed of correctly or cautiously, or are inadequately contained or quarantined.
Soil and Water Contamination
Wastes, contaminants, toxins, and other harmful substances can destroy vegetation, sterilize soil, and soak into underground aquifers, wells, rivers, creeks, and lakes, which can contaminate water sources used by people in their everyday lives. As a result, people may be exposed to physical harm, such as neurological and gastrointestinal illness, and even cancer.
Our Strategy
Estefanos Law works with highly qualified experts who can help determine the level of contamination through testing and sample collection, investigating into a company’s waste management practices, estimate what it will take to compensate people who have been harmed, and to clean up contaminated property, sometimes called “remediation.”