Associated Press
EPA to Act Against DuPont Over Chemical
07.08.2004, 06:21 PM
The Environmental Protection Agency will seek millions
of dollars in fines against chemical giant DuPont for failing to provide
information about the potential health and environmental risks of a chemical
used to make Teflon, officials said Thursday.
The EPA alleges that DuPont repeatedly failed over a
20-year period to submit information the company had obtained regarding the
synthetic chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA or C8.
DuPont spokesman Clif Webb said the company, which
maintains that PFOA is not harmful to human health or the environment, will file
a formal denial to the EPA complaint.
"We did not see - and have not seen - harm to human
health or the environment, and believe that we have complied with the reporting
requirements in all three cases," Webb said.
PFOA is used in the manufacturing of fluoropolymers,
including Teflon products, at DuPont's Washington Works facility near
Parkersburg, W.Va.
Officials said that from 1981 to 2001, DuPont failed to
report information to EPA about the risk posed by PFOA to human health or the
environment.
Companies are required by the Toxic Substances Control
Act to report such information immediately. EPA has the authority to seek a
penalty of $25,000 per day for violations occurring before Jan. 30, 1997, and up
to $27,500 per day for violations occurring thereafter, for each day that DuPont
failed to report the information.
The EPA is taking administrative action against DuPont
for two violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act and one violation of the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. DuPont faces a potential maximum fine of
some $300 million, but Tom Skinner, head of EPA's Office of Enforcement, said
the agency likely will not pursue such a figure.
"It is accurate to say that we will be seeking
millions," Skinner said. "It's going to be a substantial amount of penalty that
we are seeking."
EPA officials stressed that Thursday's action concerns
only DuPont's failure to comply with reporting requirements. The EPA is
conducting a separate investigation to determine what, if any, risks to human
health or the environment are posed by PFOA.
According to federal regulators, DuPont observed PFOA
in blood samples taken from pregnant workers at the Washington Works facility in
1981. In at least one woman, the chemical had transferred to the fetus.
DuPont detected the chemical in public water supplies
as early as the mid-1980s in West Virginia and Ohio communities near the
Washington Works facility, EPA officials said. By 1991, the company had
information that the chemical was in water supplies at levels greater than its
exposure guidelines indicated would be without any effect to members of the
community.
In 1997, according to federal regulators, DuPont failed
to provide EPA with all toxicological information the company had regarding PFOA,
despite an EPA request for such information.
The EPA began taking a look last year after the
Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based research and advocacy
organization, complained that the company should have turned over information to
EPA but had not.
DuPont is also the subject of a class-action lawsuit
brought by residents living near the West Virginia plant who contend their
drinking water was contaminated by PFOA. The first-phase of the lawsuit is
expected to start in September in state court in West Virginia.
In trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange,
DuPont shares closed down 32 cents at $42.77.