Because of the lies - and government lawyers' alleged failure to disclose them promptly - a $5 million Superfund lawsuit in West Virginia was thrown out of court.
As a result, the EPA is re-examining all cleanup work ever supervised by Caron - more than $22.5 million worth of Superfund projects in several states. The 19 projects include several in the Philadelphia area - including a $2 million stage of the long battle to rid SEPTA's Paoli yard of PCBs.
The U.S. attorney's office recently informed the U.S. District Court at Philadelphia that government lawyers were "evaluating the effect of the false testimony of Robert Caron" on the Paoli case.
Caron, who recently pleaded guilty to perjury in Baltimore, also lied under oath about his credentials during his testimony about Paoli, court records show.
Now lawyers for railroads that will be asked to pay the Paoli cleanup bills are considering whether his perjury might aid in their defense.
"That's what we're reviewing right now," said Roger F. Cox, a Philadelphia lawyer representing SEPTA in the case.
"We really don't know what kind of impact it's going to have," said a Conrail spokesman.
ONE OF THE BEST
Caron, who resigned from the EPA earlier this year, was a hot property nationally. He was the only EPA representative on the six-man U.S. environmental team sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 to help cope with the oil spilled into the Persian Gulf.
"He was one of the best here, one of the most experienced," said former co-worker Harold Yates, chief Superfund information officer in the EPA regional office at Philadelphia. "And the irony of it all is that a degree was not required for the job."
The review of Caron's sites, said Yates, is intended "to make sure that the work that he did is not flawed, and to anticipate possible legal action . . . to reverse decisions on cost recovery."
