What next?

Since Woodie Cantrell lost his lawsuit against Ashland Inc. in March, several of us have been kicking around ideas about what may happen next.  Just idle speculation, you know.  Here are a few thoughts:

• Nothing will happen.  Folks want to forget about Ashland ever being here and move on with their lives.
• Someone will sue for property damages, based on actual damages occurring to their specific property, e.g. a radioactive un-remediated sludge pit that needs cleaning up.  The plaintiff would attempt to get the court to force Ashland to pay for the necessary clean-up.  Given the ongoing ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, juries in the future may be more willing to slap Ashland around a little.
• Someone will sue for personal injury.  The water table here is polluted with Ashland's brine waste.  People drank this water from their wells, including the students and faculty of Blaine School.  There are several cancer deaths that could be tied to exposure to radioactive radium and barium isotopes through drinking water.

Most likely we will end up with a few sludge pit remediations paid for by either Ashland or the Kentucky taxpayer, and most people will continue with their lives happy to put Ashland Oil in their rear-view mirror.