Judge Orders Testimony Into Kentucky Plant’s Environmental Practices

Residents who live near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in western Kentucky may soon have a better idea of what happened to their property.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Goebel earlier this month ordered plant operators Union Carbide Corp., and Lockheed Martin to find employees who can testify in a deposition about the environmental policies, if any, at the plant from the 1950s through the 1980s.

The order came in a 12-year-long legal battle between the residents and the companies that run the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. The residents say employees for years dumped radioactive wastewater into nearby creeks and streams, contaminating their farms.

The companies have denied the allegations. The case is scheduled to go to trial in January in Paducah.