About 400 miles upstream from Louisville, the Chemours Co.’s Washington Works operation has been releasing higher-than-permitted amounts of a forever chemical into the Ohio River.
In recent court filings, Louisville Water Co. – the utility that processes river water into drinking water for Jefferson and surrounding counties – linked a local spike in PFAS pollution last December to the West Virginia factory, while Chemours disputed the correlation.
Research shows exposure to some PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, nicknamed forever chemicals because they’re almost indestructible – can heighten serious health risks.
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting recently covered this issue. So has journalist Sarah Elbeshbishi, of Mountain State Spotlight.
I talked with Elbeshbishi about the West Virginia factory’s infamous history of PFAS pollution, and what’s happening with a lawsuit over its recent permit violations, which include dumping too much PFAS into the Ohio River.
This trasncript is edited for length and clarity.
Morgan Watkins: Let's start with the history of PFAS pollution coming out of the Washington Works facility in West Virginia. What should we know?
Sarah Elbeshbishi: The currently Chemours, but formerly DuPont, Washington Works facility previously used a chemical called C8 [also called PFOA], which is a type of PFAS that resists heat, water, oil and grease. And it's used to produce common everyday items, like non-stick pots and pans.
And so basically, in the 1980s, the company discovered that chemical was leaching into the ground underneath the plant, and it was also seeping into the drinking water sources in those surrounding communities. They started dumping that chemical into a new landfill near the base of Dry Run Creek. Cows owned by a local farmer, [Wilbur] Earl Tennant, started dying downstream of that landfill.
The Tennant family sued DuPont, which marked the beginning of a series of legal battles that spanned over two decades. It was discovered that DuPont was aware the chemical was harmful, but they hid that information from the public.
DuPont and Chemours, which is a spin-off of DuPont, agreed to pay $670 million to settle more than 3,500 cases over health problems, including kidney and testicular cancer, from the exposure of that chemical, C8.
I do want to note that DuPont has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to C8.
MW: Is PFAS pollution still happening at that facility today?
SE: Yes. It’s not C8. It’s a different type of forever chemical – type of PFAS. And so since 2019, the Washington Works site, which is now owned by Chemours, has violated its permit limits by discharging pollution, including PFAS, at higher levels than they're allowed to into the Ohio River.
The Ohio River serves as a drinking water source for more than 5 million people, I believe.
MW: Yeah, including people down in my neck of the woods, in Louisville. So you've been reporting on an ongoing lawsuit against Chemours. What are the central arguments in that lawsuit?
SE: The West Virginia Rivers Coalition sued over the company's Washington Works plant for discharging PFAS and pollution in violation of their permit limits into the Ohio River. And then in February, they asked the federal court to temporarily require Chemours to stop violating their permit until the full case could be heard.
So in May, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin held a three-day hearing on that request. And essentially, Rivers [West Virginia Rivers Coalition] is arguing that, you know, this poses unrepairable, damaging harm to the environment and to people's health. And Chemours is arguing that that's not the case. Chemours has acknowledged the plant has violated their permit limits, but they're saying that they're working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] on addressing those violations.
MW: Where does the court case stand now, and how could that outcome affect what Chemours is sending into the Ohio River?
SE: We're still waiting for Judge Goodwin to rule on the temporary request. And so, if he rules in favor of West Virginia Rivers Coalition, that would require Chemours to immediately stop violating their permit, which means that they would have to decrease the amount of pollution they would be discharging into the Ohio River until the full case would be heard.
We do know that Goodwin did move up the trial to this fall, given the severity of the issue. Goodwin did say that for Chemours to take at least 26 months to comply with its permit limits was totally unacceptable in his perspective.
I mean, that ultimately will determine how long Chemours and the Washington Works facility has to become compliant with their permit. So that's just kind of what we're waiting to see.
