3 companies to pay $100M after lawsuit over 'forever chemicals' dumped into Ohio River
DuPont and two other companies will pay the state of Ohio $110 million to settle a five-year-old lawsuit accusing them of dumping what is called "forever" chemicals into the Ohio River over seven decades that have been linked to illnesses that include cancer.
“(DuPont) did this despite knowing the release of the chemicals posed a danger to the public," Gov. Mike DeWine said at a news conference announcing the settlement.
As Ohio attorney general, DeWine sued DuPont in 2018 in Washington County Common Pleas Court, alleging it released toxic perfluorooctanoic acid or C8, in the air and water for decades from its Washington Works plant along the Ohio River in Parkersburg, West Virginia, despite the health and environmental risks.
From the 1950s through 2013, DuPont used the chemicals to make Teflon at the plant, the state said. The chemical is one of the group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals that have been used to produce a variety of consumer and industrial products ranging from firefighting foams to cookware, furniture, carpeting, and stain- and water-resistant coatings.
The chemicals have been been linked to various health risks, including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, low birth weight and high cholesterol.
They are known as "forever" chemicals because they resist breaking down in the environment and humans and animals.
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against DuPont over the chemical.
Chemical company Chemours, spun off from DuPont in 2015, agreed to pay $670 million to settle thousands of personal injury lawsuits from people claiming to be sickened by the chemicals.
Chemours will pay half the Ohio settlement and DuPont will pay $39 million, according to the companies. The third company, Corteva, also once part of DuPont, will pay the remaining $16 million. Corteva says it never made these products.
"This is the absolute best we could have done without a jury trial,’’ current Attorney General Dave Yost said.
One of the advantages of the settlement is that the state will receive full payment from the companies in a lump sum within 10 days as opposed to other settlements paid out over years, Yost and DeWine said.
Of the $110 million, 80% will be used to address pollution from the plant and 16% will to be used to address damage from firefighting foam. The rest will mitigate damages to natural resources.
The state said the bulk of the money will be spent in southeast Ohio.
The settlement preserves for the state the authority to set and enforce stringent drinking water standards in the future.
Ohio was the first state to sue DuPont for its use of the chemical.
mawilliams@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Chemical dumping into Ohio River: Three companies to pay $100 million
