New Jersey state officials sued chemicals makers DuPont, Chemours Co. and 3M Co. to pay to cleanup years of industrial contamination.
The actions come days after the state Department of Environmental Protection directed five companies, including three named in the lawsuits filed this week in Superior Court, to turn over documents regarding contamination caused by toxic chemicals commonly known as PFAS.
The lawsuits ask the court to order the companies to pay for all costs related to investigating and cleaning up the sites, including past and future testing costs, and compensate the state for damages.
PFAS can be found in products such as cookware, pizza boxes and stain repellents, though certain types of these chemicals are no longer made in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Chemicals part of this group are typically linked to higher cholesterol levels, the EPA said, but studies have also found links to low birth weights, cancer and thyroid hormone dysfunction.
DuPont, now part of DowDuPont Inc., and Chemours are named as defendants in the four complaints. Industrial conglomerate 3M is also named as defendant in two of the lawsuits. Chemours itself was formed after a 2015 spinoff from DuPont.
“The companies we’re suing today knew full well the risks involved with these harmful chemicals, but chose to foul our soil, waterways, and other precious natural resources,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Wednesday.
A representative from Chemours said since its creation, the company had “stepped up to its responsibility” and worked with state and federal officials.
“The actions announced today appear to be coming out of left field,” David Rosen, a spokesman for Chemours, said in an email. “We are particularly surprised by this action since DuPont and NJDEP agreed in June 2005 to resolve ground water natural resource matters in New Jersey.”
Representatives from the other companies couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday. When the EPA announced a plan in February to address PFAS contamination nationally, 3M said that it supported “regulation rooted in the best-available science and believe that this plan may help prevent a patchwork of state standards that could increase confusion and uncertainty for communities.”
Two of the complaints — concerning contamination at the Chambers Works facility, which straddles Pennsville and Carneys Point, and the Parlin site in Sayreville — center on PFAS.
Operations at what’s now known as Chambers Works began in 1892 with the production of smokeless gunpowder, according to Chemours’ regulatory filings. Chemours continues to make fluorochemicals among other products at the site.
The two other lawsuits — related to the Repauno site in Greenwich Township and the Pompton Lakes Works facility in Pompton Lakes — center on water contamination from so-called volatile and semivolatile organic compounds, mercury, lead and other contaminants.
The Greenwich Township site is being redeveloped. Operations at Pompton Lakes ended in the mid-1990s after the site produced items throughout the 20th century such as blasting caps, fuses and other materials, Chemours has said.
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