(Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Chemours to pay $6M for West Virginia water filters
Jeff Mordock, The News Journal 5:43 p.m. EDT May 24, 2016
Chemours will pay $6 million to remove the toxic chemical C8 from the water supply in Vienna, West Virginia, one of the towns impacted by contamination linked to a former DuPont plant.
Under an agreement with the city of Vienna, Chemours will install activated carbon filters to eliminate traces of C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, from the water supply.
Wilmington-based Chemours announced the move after the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the safe level of C8 in water supplies to 0.07 parts per billion from 0.4 parts per billion. After the EPA disclosed the new guidelines, the Vienna Water Department advised residents not to drink city water.
In February, tests paid for by the city of Vienna found five of its wells had C8 levels just above 0.01 parts per billion.
The C8 contamination has been traced back to Washington Works, which sits in Parkersburg, West Virginia, about 7 miles south of Vienna. Lawsuits and EPA investigations revealed that more than 1.7 million pounds of C8 had been released into the region's water, soil and air between 1951 and 2003, when DuPont operated Washington Works. The plant was transferred to Chemours after the company was spun off from DuPont last July.
Last month, a series by The News Journal detailed the pollution in Parkersburg.
C8 was used in the manufacturing of Teflon, one of DuPont's best-selling products. Teflon also was shifted to Chemours, although the company has never manufactured or used C8. DuPont completely phased out its use of the chemical in 2003.
DuPont settled a class-action lawsuit over C8 pollution in 2005. Under the settlement, the Wilmington chemical giant was required to install filtration systems in six water districts surrounding Washington Works that were most impacted by the C8 pollution. Vienna was not one of the water districts identified.
Chemours is required to indemnify DuPont for court costs and legal damages that could be awarded in the nearly 3,500 court cases pending against DuPont for C8 exposure. However, Chemours is under no legal requirement to pay for the filtration system.
On Monday, Delaware officials agreed to provide $7.9 million in taxpayer grants to keep Chemours in Delaware. The company is considering moving out of its downtown Wilmington location and is said to have had talks with representatives from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Janet Smith, a Chemours spokeswoman, said the water treatment filtration system could be operational in a few months, if not sooner.
"We have already begun to gather the technical information and resources necessary to design, to construct and to install granular carbon treatment systems where PFOA exceeds the health advisory," she said.
Chemours will offer interim solutions such as providing Vienna residents with bottled water until the filtration system is installed, Smith said.
DuPont spokesman Dan Turner referred all requests for comment to Chemours.
Jeffrey Dugas, campaign manager for Keep Your Promises DuPont, a watchdog group that alleges DuPont has not fulfilled all of its requirements under the 2005 settlement, called Chemours' actions "a good start," but stressed more action is needed. He said area residents need to be monitored for diseases linked to C8 exposure, including kidney and testicular cancers along with high cholesterol and ulcerative colitis.
"The fact that Chemours is filtering Vienna's water is welcome," Dugas said. "But Chemours should be filtering water in all the communities through Cincinnati, and the need for medical monitoring is crucial."
Harry Dietzler is a West Virginia attorney who has represented C8 victims in lawsuits against DuPont. He expressed concern over who will pay for the system's continued maintenance if Chemours struggles financially. Since becoming an independent company, Chemours has had only one profitable quarter, and its sales have declined. If Chemours is unable to remain profitable, it is not clear how the filtration system's maintenance costs will be funded.
DuPont is in the process of merging with the Dow Chemical Co. and then separating into three independent businesses. The C8 liability has yet to be assigned to any of the three post-merger companies. Attorneys representing plaintiffs who have sued DuPont over C8 exposure have filed motions seeking information about DuPont's post-merger liability. Both sides have filed dueling court motions that, at times, include bitter barbs against the other side.
"People in the community are concerned about the maintenance costs in light of the shell game that DuPont, Chemours and Dow appear to be playing," Dietzler said.