Consumer Law

Dirty Companies Pay Up

By Joe Consumer

We are glad to report that the residents of Spelter West Virginia may finally get some relief after living near a dirty zinc smelter for far too many years.  DuPont has agreed to a settlement ?valued at $150 million? for the community.  According to the Charleston Gazette, ?In the late 1980s, federal environmental officials began investigating the site.  DuPont got involved, eventually repurchased the smelter and steered the cleanup toward the state Department of Environmental Protection's voluntary program, rather than the more stringent federal Superfund program.?  Meanwhile, people?s health continued to suffer.

Bloomberg reports that ?residents sued DuPont in 2004, claiming exposure to toxic substances from the smelter. They pursued the case as a class-action, or group, suit for owners of about 3,000 properties, as well as about 8,500 people.?

According to the settlement, ?DuPont will pay $70 million and fund a 30-year medical testing program estimated to cost $80 million in a deal that still faces a review by 8,500 area residents and needs the approval of Harrison Circuit Judge Thomas Bedell.? 

(By the way, the state Supreme Court had already cut down punitive damages by 40 percent, ruling ?in a major new point of law - that punitive damages may not be awarded to plaintiffs who are seeking future medical monitoring costs because of past toxic exposure.?  And the case was headed towards a new trial over statute of limitations issues.) 

Notably, ?The proposed deal comes six years after DuPont agreed to a $107.6 million deal in a medical monitoring case filed on behalf of thousands of residents whose drinking water was polluted with the toxic chemical C8 from DuPont's plant in Wood County."

Meanwhile, an ?Oklahoma company that makes specialty chemicals used in paints and other products has agreed to pay $270 million for cleanup of contaminated sites in 22 states. Tronox Inc. agreed to the payments as part of a bankruptcy settlement announced Tuesday."

The Wall Street Journal reports,

The settlement agreement, filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court, will create five environmental response trusts. A multi-state trust will take control of 25 contaminated properties in 14 states and will perform or fund cleanup at more than 1,800 potentially contaminated former service station properties. The other trusts focus on fewer sites.

Tronox filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2009. In August of that year, the U.S. filed claims against the company in bankruptcy seeking to recover past and future environmental cleanup costs and other damages. The U.S. also sought civil monetary penalties for violations of the Clear Air Act and the Clear Water Act, as well as other environmental laws.

Tronox is ?one of the world's largest producers of whitening pigment.?  Talk about dirty whites.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on November 24, 2010 (boomark / email).