Convicted polluter’s heirs sue government

• By BILL LODGE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Dec 3, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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One of Louisiana’s notorious polluters died 10 months ago at 76. Now, his Baton Rouge widow and children are suing the federal government, alleging that taxpayers are responsible for the lung cancer that killed him.

Edward W. McCrary III, a former Baker resident who operated Louisiana Oil Recycle/Reuse in the 2100 block of Scenic Highway, spent approximately 85 percent of a 27-month prison sentence at the former Federal Medical Center at Carville.

McCrary served that time in 1993 and 1994 after pleading guilty to federal charges that he conspired to dump industrial wastes into city-parish storm and sanitary sewers.

His family insists he inhaled deadly asbestos fibers while living in substandard conditions at Carville.

“I blame the government for it,” McCrary’s widow, Henrietta, said Tuesday. “That’s where the cancer came from.”

The suit was filed in federal court late Monday and served Tuesday on federal officials.

U.S. Attorney David R. Dugas said he could not immediately comment because his office is waiting for a report on the case from the Bureau of Prisons.

Henrietta McCrary said she has not yet decided how much money to seek for her husband’s death.

“I’d rather have my husband back,” she said. “We would have been married 53 years in April.”

He was sued by residents who lived near his Louisiana Oil site. He was fined by state and local authorities for a series of spills.

Prior to his state and federal indictments in the early 1990s, McCrary’s firm was alleged by state officials to have been the source of oily, caustic wastes that polluted Capitol Lake.

While on supervised release in 1997, McCrary was alleged by federal officials to have acted as a middle man in the sale of a hazardous waste known as toluene.