Caroline Fraser

But after that filter failed, that company, which was owned by Gulf and Western at the time, did a kind of back-of-the-napkin calculation of what those kids' lives were worth because they –

felt like, okay, we're going to get sued if we keep running the plant without filtration.

But is that really going to matter?

Because these kids' lives are probably only worth about $11 million a piece.

And our profits are such that it makes more sense to keep operating regardless of what happens to these kids.

And we know this because of the lawsuits that were ultimately filed because, you know, they did end up in court.

And there were kids, there was a baby who was more lead poisoned than any human being that the doctors had ever seen.

Yeah, I mean, it was a nightmarish thing.

Yeah.

I used to live in New Jersey right by the...

in Jersey City.

Right by the Liberty State Park, which a bunch of the acreage of that was off limits to people because it was so polluted.

Yeah.

And I remember, you know, because you could actually walk from my apartment in Jersey City to Liberty State Park, but you had to go by this, you know, place that was crushing cars, one of those facilities where they...

compact cars.

And I mean, there was all this heavy industry there and pollutants.

And you had to walk across this little wooden trail over a stream to get to the park.

And the water was that color.

I mean, it was like this disgusting, you know, color not found in nature.

And you just looked at it and thought...