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DuPont Reaches $3.35 Million Settlement over Allegations of Environmental Violations at Its Texas Chemical Plant

  • Texas AG Ken Paxton and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with chemical companies E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. and Performance Materials NA, Inc. (collectively “DuPont”) to resolve numerous allegations of violations of hazardous waste, air, and water environmental laws, including the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, as well as Texas environmental laws.
  • The complaint, filed concurrently with the consent decree, alleged that DuPont was responsible for numerous environmental violations at its Sabine River Works Chemical Manufacturing Complex in Orange, Texas, including the storage and disposal of hazardous waste without necessary permits, unauthorized discharge of process wastewater, failure to meet land disposal restrictions, and failure to comply with the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for benzene and other organic chemical manufacturing, among other things.
  • Under the terms of the consent decree, DuPont will pay $3.35 million in civil penalties and attorneys’ fees to be divided equally between Texas and the federal government. In addition, DuPont will monitor and control benzene emissions and pH levels in wastewaters, conduct soil, sediment, and groundwater sampling to determine the extent of any contamination, and perform any necessary clean up. DuPont further will retain an independent third party to conduct compliance audits to ascertain the chemical plant’s compliance with environmental laws and regulations.