The State of Ohio has reached one of the largest environmental settlements in State history.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (now known as EIDP, Inc.), The Chemours Company, Corteva, Inc., and DuPont de Nemours, Inc. have agreed to pay $110 million to the State of Ohio to restore natural resources contaminated by the decades-long releases of PFOA from the Washington Works facility in Wood County, West Virginia, in addition to ongoing monitoring, testing and treatment of PFOA in drinking water found at least 15 miles from the facility.
In addition to the natural resource restoration payments and obligations to monitor, test and treat drinking water around the plant, the settlement provides the State with various safeguards to protect drinking water in the event federal or state drinking water standards change in the future.
In February 2018, the Ohio Attorney General appointed Kelley Drye to file an action on behalf of the State of Ohio now styled State of Ohio, ex rel. Dave Yost, Attorney General of Ohio v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., et al., Case No. 18OT32, in the Court of Common Pleas for Washington County, Ohio. The State asserted, among other claims, claims for public nuisance, negligence, trespass, and unjust enrichment based on PFOA contamination from Washington Works, as well as claims for fraudulent transfers for DuPont's efforts to restructure and move historical assets away from the PFOA liabilities at issue. The Kelley Drye team, led by John Gilmour and Bill Jackson, engaged in years of hard-fought litigation for the State, including obtaining several favorable rulings.
"Kelley Drye is honored to have represented the State in this matter, and thrilled to have secured this historic settlement to benefit the State of Ohio, its residents, and its natural resources" says Melissa Byroade, counsel for the State of Ohio.
For decades, the lawyers at Kelley Drye have been fortunate to represent public sector clients like the State of Ohio in historic and incredibly complex natural resource damages and environmental contamination cases of all kinds. In total, Kelley Drye's public clients have recovered tens of billions of dollars in remediation costs, property damages, natural resource damages, lost tax revenues, and other remedies in a variety of complex environmental matters across America.
Kelley Drye offers the nation's preeminent environmental practice group for states, attorneys general, local governments, and other public entities. Click here for more on Kelley Drye's Public Sector representations.
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