The West Virginia Rivers Coalition is threatening to sue Chemours over what the group says are continued violations of the federal Clean Water Act at the company’s Washington Works plant near Parkersburg.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition is threatening to sue Chemours over what the group says are continued violations of the federal Clean Water Act at the company’s Washington Works plant near Parkersburg.
One of West Virginia’s most prominent environmental groups has threatened to sue one of the state’s most notorious polluters of substances tied to cancer and other adverse health impacts.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition has announced it intends to sue the Chemours Company FC LLC under the Clean Water Act for what the coalition says are lingering violations of the federal law resulting in toxic health threats from hazardous PFAS chemicals.
The Rivers Coalition said in a news release Friday Chemours was failing to adhere to the conditions of a state-issued Clean Water Act discharge permit limiting concentrations of PFAS. PFAS is an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, industrial chemicals that build up in the human bloodstream and have been linked to increased cancer risk, altered metabolism and reduced immune system vulnerability to infections.
The coalition said it felt compelled to pursue legal action despite an April 2023 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order the agency touted as its first enforcement action under the Clean Water Act to address PFAS discharges.
The EPA consent order agreed to by Chemours requires the company spun off from chemical giant DuPont in 2015 to take corrective measures to address discharges of PFAS. The order also requires Chemours to implement a PFAS sampling plan to characterize stormwater runoff and effluent wastewater leaving the facility.
The order cited discharge monitoring reports submitted by Chemours to the state Department of Environmental Protection showing 69 water pollution control permit exceedances of PFAS from Sept. 30, 2018-March 31, 2023. Fourteen of the water pollution control permit exceedances were of 1,000% or more.
Chemours, EPA respond
But Chemours says the EPA has yet to approve a plan the company submitted per the April 2023 order to comply with permitted limits for PFAS discharges into the Ohio River. Chemours’ proposed plan says it would take roughly 31 months to implement fully following EPA approval, pushing the targeted time frame for completion well into 2026.
The EPA required Chemours to submit its proposed plan within 120 days of its April 26, 2023 administrative consent order, and Chemours’ submitted plan is dated Aug. 24.
A Chemours spokesperson called the company’s plan submission “timely†in a Friday statement in which they said the company is “committed to being a good neighbor to the communities in which it operates.â€
EPA spokesperson Kelly Offner said in December 2023 the agency is reviewing the plan and didn’t have an estimate for when that would be complete.
The EPA did not provide an update on its plan review as of 6 p.m. Tuesday.
If approved and implemented, the plan would address four outlets at Chemours’ Washington Works facility, three of which discharge directly into the Ohio River. The plan pledges that it would result in consistently meeting water pollution control permit limits for two PFAS: hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid, or HFPO-DA, a processing aid used in industrial manufacturing at the facility, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
The plan estimates that it would take 14 months for design, five months for bidding and contracting, nine months for permitting and 10 months for construction.
An infiltration and groundwater treatment method would reduce HFPO-DA loads by roughly 23 pounds per year in comparison to just 7 pounds per year if only stormwater would be treated, per the plan.
The EPA has reported that monthly average and daily maximum HFPO-DA water pollution control permit exceedances of 2,043% and 3,117%, respectively, took place in July and September 2022 at facility outlets.
The EPA has said a 2020 agency study of PFOA and HFPO-DA used at the facility supports a finding that those PFAS were deposited into soils as far as roughly 30 miles from the facility and roughly 25 miles into surface waters from the facility.
After PFOA used to make Teflon-related products at the Washington Works facility discharged into water supplies, people living in the area experienced increased rates of:
Testicular and kidney cancer
Thyroid disease
Ulcerative colitis
Pregnancy-induced hypertension
Ohio officials announced a proposed $110 million settlement with manufacturers that included Chemours and DuPont in November 2023. West Virginia has refrained from similar legal action against the manufacturers over PFAS.
The EPA has said DuPont failed for more than two decades to report data indicating PFAS health risks from manufacturing at the Washington Works plant. The company agreed to pay $10.25 million for reporting violations in 2005 in what the EPA then said was the largest civil administrative penalty it ever obtained under a federal environmental statute.
Rivers Coalition interim executive director Autumn Crowe said in a Friday statement her organization could not “stand idly by while public health and our water are endangered.â€
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