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Wood County citizens turned out last night to object to the latest permits for the landfill where DuPont plans to dump wastes containing the toxic chemical C8.
The state Department of Environmental Protection, under the latest plan, does not limit the amount of C8 that DuPont can discharge from the landfill into tributaries of the Ohio River.
"This community should demand that action be taken to stop the dumping at this landfill and clean up what is already there," said resident Matt McDowell.
Area residents have complained and filed suits that C8 contaminated streams, groundwater, and poisoned their wells.
The 17-acre Dry Run Landfill, about 4 miles southwest of the community of Lubeck, is at the center of the C8 storm.
Since the dump opened in 1984, DuPont has disposed large amounts of C8-contaminated wastes in the facility.
Company tests have confirmed that C8 is leaching from the landfill into Dry Run Creek at levels above the company's internal limits, according to reporter Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette.
Resident Jack Cottrill, said state regulators have continually sided with DuPont over local residents. "The DEP will do nothing," Cottrill said. "The DEP has never ruled in the public interest."
DuPont has used C8 at its Washington Works plant for about 55 years.
DuPont's emission of C8 has essentially been unregulated by state and federal agencies.
Using internal DuPont documents uncovered by lawyers for Wood County residents upset over their water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun a detailed study of the chemical and sued DuPont for allegedly hiding information about C8's dangers.
Wood County judge George Hill approved DuPont's payment of $107.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the company poisoned thousands of residents' drinking water with C8.
The settlement caused DuPont to install new pollution control equipment at local water companies. Most of the settlement money is being used to study C8's effects on residents' health.
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