Ruth Joiner blames digestive problems and a benign tumor on more than 40 years of living near the plant. She missed a deadline to submit a claim for compensation because she didn't know she had to file before Tronox's bankruptcy ended.
"Why were they bankrupt before we got paid?" Joiner, 65, asks. "They say they got nothing left, but we've got our health left -- our messed-up health."
Jamison says Columbus's black population, which lives closest to the foul-smelling plant and which had worked in its yards, has suffered most.
"Mississippi is still burning," he says. "There are poor people of color dying."
In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south, people settled with Kerr-McGee long ago -- and for a pittance.
In 2003, 1,490 of 3,300 claimants who say they were harmed by the wood treatment plant in their town got $600,000, or an average of $402.68 per person, a 2006 Tronox filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows. Another 1,335 claims were settled for an undisclosed amount. A judge dismissed the rest because plaintiffs failed to pay filing fees or disclose enough information, according to the filing.
Avoca, Pennsylvania
In Avoca, Pennsylvania, residents won more -- but have yet to see the money. Twenty-four people sued Kerr-McGee in 2005, saying chemicals from a plant that had used creosote from 1956 to 1996 caused skin and lung cancer, asthma and other diseases. By 2007, the suit had grown to 3,700 plaintiffs.
In May 2007, Tronox, which by then had assumed Kerr-McGee assets, agreed to negotiate. It set aside $4 million, saying it would increase the amount as needed when an arbitrator decided the awards, according to the confidential arbitration agreement viewed by Bloomberg News. The agreement says Tronox must pay any award within 30 days and can't appeal any decision.
The court-appointed arbitrator awarded eight skin cancer sufferers $45,000 to $300,000 apiece on Oct. 2, 2008, according to court documents. Tronox filed motions in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas to reconsider, violating the requirement about not appealing. After that, it didn't pay, according to papers in the arbitration agreement.
Navajos Suffering
In April, as the trial approached, Anadarko argued to exclude testimony by three witnesses from Avoca, court papers show. One of them, David Perks, says his bladder cancer had been caused by living near the Kerr-McGee plant since 1977 and coaching Little League for 16 years on creosote-soaked fields.