Major Pollution Problems Cited At Former DuPont Plant

The company that bought the DuPont plant in Chattanooga is being fined millions of dollars for serious air pollution problems that are part of a worldwide lawsuit against DuPont.

In 2004 INVISTA closed a $4-billion deal to buy dozens of DuPont manufacturing plants in the United States and overseas, including the one on Access Road in Chattanooga. But according to an internal INVISTA memo the company hired independent auditors to investigate the site, and within a month of the sale found serious problems.

"The manufacturing plants DuPont sold INVISTA in 2004 were revealed to have serious and widespread noncompliance with safety and environmental laws and regulations," according to INVISTA records.

Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey said "I was surprised."

INVISTA is now suing DuPont for $800-million dollars because it says that's how much it will cost to uncover, report and correct DuPont's safety and environmental violations at all the plants in question.

INVISTA says terms of the sale included DuPont's promise to clean up it's sites, and the lawsuit "is an unfortunate but necessary step after more than three years of DuPont's consistent refusal to fulfill it's obligations."

"I hope INVISTA and DuPont are able to work it out, in getting compliance," Mayor Ramsey said.

Inside documents filed in federal court we find that the problem with the Chattanooga plant is air pollution. Records show DuPont installed equipment in the late 1990's that was never approved or permitted, and as a result high levels of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides are being emitted into the air.

Dr. Frederick Seifer, a pulmonologist, said "sulfur dioxide is the more toxic of the two gases, when it comes to the lungs."

Besides headaches, nausea, coughing and bronchial spasms, Dr. Seifer says more serious problems can develop in people who live downwind.

"A long term exposure to sulfur dioxide can cause a disease that will appear very much like asthma, but be resistant to more traditional medicines you use to treat asthma," Dr. Seifer said.

Nitrogen oxides help form ground ozone, another lung irritant. That's been a long-term problem for Hamilton County, and a few years ago mandatory vehicle emissions testing began with the hope of reducing the gas.

INVISTA says they are committed to cleaning up it's plants, but they want DuPont to pay them back.

mayor Ramsey said "well I would applaud them for making the effort to clean up, it's the right thing to do.

A spokesperson for the Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau said they will not be making any on-camera statements, but Amber McCorvey did say the EPA and U.S. Department of Justice is working on a plan that involves almost two-million dollars in fines, and remedies to correct the problems.

And late Friday afternoon we got documents from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. They show how thousands of dollars in fines have been paid in recent years because of violations involving the improper handling and storage of hazardous materials on site.

Click beneath "Associated Links" to read the entire lawsuit.