DuPont settles with EPA

Here’s the latest in the ongoing DuPont saga from CNews:

Federal regulators have reached an agreement with DuPont to settle allegations that the company hid information about the dangers of a toxic chemical known as C8 used in the making of Teflon.

Lawyers for DuPont and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told an administrative law judge on Nov. 23 that they had reached a final agreement, but needed more time to put together the paperwork.

Judge Barbara Gunning then gave the parties until Jan. 13 to file the formal agreement.

“The request for additional time is to accommodate EPA’s procedural rules which require the Environmental Appeals Board to review and approve any settlement reached by the parties,” the EPA said Tuesday in a statement.

Officials from both the EPA and DuPont refused to release terms of the deal.

“We are not commenting on that particular issue at this time,” said Robin Ollis, spokeswoman for DuPont Co.’s Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg, W.Va.

The EPA alleged that DuPont for 20 years covered up important information about C8’s health effects and about the pollution of water supplies near the company’s Washington Works plant.

Under federal law, DuPont could face civil fines of more than $300 million for not reporting information that showed C8 posed “substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.”

[...]

In February, DuPont settled a class-action lawsuit for $107.6 million brought by Ohio and West Virginia residents in 2001, alleging the Wilmington, Del.-based company intentionally withheld and misrepresented information concerning the nature and extent of the human health threat posed by C8.

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