By Eva Ciabattoni
Two lawyers - one a cop’s son from Pittsburgh, the other one of 10 siblings from Burlingame - met at a party. Joseph Hilldorfer, the cop’s son, had left the FBI to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division. Robert Dugoni had won prizes for two novels. When Hilldorfer described one of his cases, Dugoni knew it had the elements of a great story. Together, they decided to tell it in “The Cyanide Canary” (Simon & Schuster, 2004).
Smarting from the devastating loss of a court case - involving illegal dumping of thousands of gallons of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium - that resulted in no more than a slap on the wrist, Hilldorfer had been called out to investigate an incident in Soda Springs, Idaho. Two men had been ordered by their boss, Allan Elias, owner of Evergreen Resources, to clean sludge out of a 25,000-gallon tank. Elias sent them into the tank without safety equipment, claiming it contained only mud and water.
One of the men, Scott Dominguez, was in critical condition from being overcome by fumes. Rescue efforts were impeded by the lack of safety equipment, the small diameter of the sole opening to the tank and the refusal of Elias to come clean about the contents. Dominguez lay in the sludge until a new opening - large enough for a rescue worker in safety gear - could be cut with a blowtorch.
The physician treating Dominguez suspected cyanide poisoning but had to wait until an antidote could be helicoptered in.
EPA investigators found that the tank contained several waste products: cyanide from a bankrupt silver-leaching operation run by Elias at another of his companies and phosphoric acid, which reacted with the cyanide in the sludge to form deadly hydrogen cyanide gas (of Nazi gas chamber notoriety). He had illegally transported this hazardous waste to Evergreen. Elias failed to have a cyanide antidote on site as required by law. Every minute’s delay in administering the cyanide antidote resulted in further damage to Dominguez’s oxygen-deprived brain.
“Canary” is the story of bringing Elias to justice. It tells the story of lawyers who could make a killing at any of the big law firms but who choose to dedicate themselves to seeking justice in a judiciary system that has been notoriously slow to recognize environmental crime as real crime. The key difference in the Elias case is the human injury.
Through the microcosm of this case, Hilldorfer and Dugoni demonstrate the reluctance of judges and juries to get tough on well-groomed, well-spoken corporate executives represented by the best lawyers money can buy.
Some of the book is pure horror story. Did you ever hear of sludge runners? These are “just-make-it-go-away” people hired to get rid of industry waste however they can, often through illegal dumping, thus saving companies millions in proper disposal fees. Some companies pay people like Elias to turn mining waste and flue dust into crop fertilizer. It’s enough to turn anyone green.
Unsentimental except for a handful of forgivable lapses, “Canary” is pure thriller from start to finish.
