Baron & Budd Files GenX Lawsuit on Behalf of Private Well Owners in North Carolina

Plaintiffs with properties located near Fayetteville Works facility allege DuPont, Chemours contaminated water with dangerous chemicals

DALLAS – February 21, 2018 – The national law firm of Baron & Budd announced today it has filed suit in the United States Eastern District of North Carolina against Chemours and DuPont for their role in contaminating several private properties near the Fayetteville Works facility on the Cape Fear River (Case No. 7:18-cv-00030-D). The suit alleges that the properties – including groundwater used for drinking and bathing –  have been contaminated by dangerous perfluorinated chemicals (“PFCs”), including GenX. Co-counsel is Harold Seagle of North Carolina-based Seagle Law.

The firm is pursuing legal action on behalf of numerous property owners to recover damages associated with the present and future removal of all PFCs from the property.

Many of the plaintiffs own property near Marshwood Lake, which has water with GenX levels as high as six times greater than established state health limits. The suit alleges that the contamination has adversely affected the quality and safety of the water drawn from Plaintiffs’ wells. GenX and other perfluorinated chemicals will continue to exist in groundwater for decades, even if Chemours removes these chemicals from its waste stream. Additionally, costly measures are required to remove the chemicals from the Plaintiffs’ groundwater wells and the aquifer supplying Plaintiffs’ wells.

The suit alleges that Chemours and DuPont knew that the PFCs they were releasing into the environment – including GenX – created a probable risk to the health of individuals who live near the Fayetteville Works plant. The companies continued to deposit PFCs into the Cape Fear River as recently as 2017.

The legal team representing these private property owners will be led by Baron & Budd Shareholder Scott Summy, one of the most successful water contamination litigators in the U.S. Summy and the Baron & Budd team have won over $1 billion for clients facing water contamination issues. Summy also brings a lengthy track record of protecting the drinking water of North Carolina residents. In the 1990s, he filed the first MTBE lawsuit against Conoco on behalf of Wilmington residents, which was settled in 1997 after a Wilmington-based jury rendered a multi-million-dollar verdict to cover the costs of medical monitoring.

“After months of investigation, it is abundantly clear that both Chemours and DuPont acted with blatant disregard for the environmental impact that dumping PFCs would have on the people living nearby,” said Summy. “These companies understood the dangers associated with Gen X and many other PFAS contaminants for years and chose profits over corporate responsibility. They knowingly failed to disclose that they contaminated the aquifer, which is the source of domestic water for hundreds of residents living near the plant. We intend to protect the rights of these private well owners by holding Chemours and DuPont responsible for this contamination.”

In addition to this suit, Baron & Budd also represents Brunswick County, North Carolina and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, as well as Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority in their suits against Chemours and DuPont for their role in contaminating the Cape Fear River. In these cases, the firm is pursuing legal action on their behalf to recover costs required to investigate, manage, reduce and remove chemicals from drinking water drawn from the Cape Fear River.

DuPont is the fourth largest chemical company in the world based on market capitalization as of 2017, and is ranked No. 117 on the 2017 Fortune 500 list. The Chemours Company was spun off by DuPont in 2015, and today, it is a publicly-traded Fortune 500 Company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

If you own property with a private well near the Fayettville Works plant, and are concerned about your exposure to GenX contamination, you are not alone. To learn more about your legal options, please call Baron & Budd at 866-700-8994.

ABOUT BARON & BUDD, P.C.

The law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C., with offices in Dallas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Austin, Los Angeles and San Diego, is a nationally recognized law firm with a nearly 40-year history of “Protecting What’s Right” for people, communities and businesses harmed by negligence. Baron & Budd’s size and resources enable the firm to take on large and complex cases. The firm represents individuals and government and business entities in areas as diverse as dangerous pharmaceuticals and medical devices, environmental contamination, the Gulf oil spill, financial fraud, overtime violations, deceptive advertising, automotive defects, trucking accidents, nursing home abuse, and asbestos-related illnesses such as mesothelioma.