The News Journal
(Wilmington,
Delaware)
November 25, 2004
EPA raises C-8 reporting
concerns
By Jeff Montgomery
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to cite the DuPont Co. for one
or more new toxic substance reporting violations involving a chemical used
to make Teflon, expanding an earlier claim that the same compound caused
undisclosed pollution and health concerns.
EPA spokesman Rich Hood
confirmed Wednesday that the agency had on Monday requested a delay, later
denied, in an earlier enforcement case against DuPont that charged the company
with violations at its Washington Works plant along the Ohio River in West
Virginia.
In July, the federal
agency accused DuPont of failing for years to report evidence of human risks
from perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), sometimes referred to as C-8. The allegations
could expose DuPont to a maximum penalty in excess of $300 million, although
federal officials have said they intend to seek a lesser fine.
DuPont said in a prepared
statement issued late Wednesday that it was cooperating with the EPA's studies.
The company also disputed claims that it failed to report required information.
"Should the agency
decide to file an additional complaint, we will contest their decision and
defend our position," DuPont's statement said.
The EPA's initial charges
were prompted in part on documents in a class action lawsuit filed by people
who live near the West Virginia plant, and brought to light by Environmental
Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
The group earlier this month said that a DuPont document filed in that class
action lawsuit provided clear evidence that C-8 had contaminated the bloodstreams
of 12 people who drank water tainted with C-8.
In a court document,
the EPA said the blood test report "supports a conclusion of a substantial
risk of injury to human health," obliging the company to report the
findings immediately.
PFOA and related chemicals
have become targets of intense EPA scrutiny in recent years, after studies
found traces of the chemicals in the blood of humans and animals around
the globe. Some researchers have warned that the chemicals may never break
down in the environment and might increase risks of birth defects, developmental
or other health problems such as cancer based on tests on laboratory animals.
Hood said Wednesday
that the EPA was aware of the blood test concerns before Environmental Working
Group made them public. An EPA document filed with a federal administrative
law judge said the agency had obtained "information sufficient to allege
that DuPont has committed a new violation" of toxic substance reporting
requirements.
"EPA intends to
file a claim for penalties for this new alleged violation in addition to
the penalties sought" earlier, the document noted. "Moreover,
EPA will soon begin evaluating a substantial amount of new information that
DuPont is presently submitting to the agency, and that DuPont will continue
to submit to the agency through December 2004, which may support additional
claims for violations ... relating to PFOA."
Environmental Working
Group President Kenneth A. Cook said late Wednesday that DuPont and other
companies need to find ways to make Teflon and similar compounds without
PFOA-type ingredients.
"The underlying
problem is: Even if this had been reported in a timely fashion, how is it
that we can have a chemical that ends up in all of us, that's used for decades,
that's the underpinning of a multibillion-dollar DuPont business and that
never breaks down, and yet we have minimal information on its toxic properties?"
Cook said.
DuPont recently offered
to settle a class action lawsuit over PFOA pollution in West Virginia and
Ohio drinking water supplies for $340 million, in a deal that could involve
blood testing for tens of thousands of residents. A hearing on a portion
of the EPA's July complaint is scheduled for Dec. 16.
