Important news for companies when considering store and manufacturing locations.
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OTTAWA — Ikea Canada in a lawsuit claims that a section of land where the company wants to build its largest store in Canada has been contaminated with dry-cleaning chemicals. Ikea claims that an environmental study found tetrachloroethylene (also referred to as PCE or "perc") in the soil of the location at issue.
Ikea claims the contamination is affecting plans to move the company’s location. Ikea has launched the lawsuit against the owner of a small strip mall near the site, the past owner of the strip mall, and the owners of two dry-cleaning outlets that operated there until 2004. Ikea is seeking an Order whereby the Defendants will pay for the cleanup. The lawsuit claims $1 million in damages from each of the eight Defendants, plus other costs. Ikea's lawsuit has also set off third-party litigation between the Defendants. Soil samples taken from the property during a 2007 environmental assessment found concentrations of the chemical at 37 parts per billion, about seven times the limit for non-potable groundwater. "The degradation products of PCE over time is also dangerous and harmful to humans and the natural environment," Ikea says in the lawsuit. "The migration of the PCE onto the Ikea property, which contains both retail operations and restaurants, poses a hazard which Ikea cannot properly address while the migration from the Baxter property continues."
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