DuPont‘s C-8 saga didn’t start – or end – with the 2005 settlement in the Leach case. C-8 was used at DuPont’s Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, WV starting in 1951. Almost from the start, DuPont knew about the dangers of C-8, but they hid that information from their own workers and the public. Read some of their stories here:

Stories

“…dumped directly into the pond.”

I worked for Heist on and off for 20 years. We were contracted to dispose of the C-8. We would clean the C-8 out with a sump pump. From there we would separate the liquid and the solid and put the solid in drums that were shipped off. The liquid would be dumped directly into the pond.

“Dupont knew it had contaminated…”

DuPont knew it had contaminated the Lubeck Water System’s wells, so the company decided to purchase the wells and pay for new ones farther away for Lubeck. Unfortunately, these wells were downstream because the company claimed that the ‘high river’ water was not of the quality they needed.

“The people around there didn’t know…”

The solid waste from the Teflon unit would be packed into drums and loaded into trucks that would bring the waste south to Letard in Mason County once a month. The people around there didn’t know.

“We knew that there were elevated levels of C-8 all over the country…”

For example in Cincinnati the DuPont Fort Hill Works plant caused elevated levels. There were also some of the highest levels in Bloomington, Delaware.

“Sometimes a powder from the Teflon area would escape into the river…”

We’d try to boon it or get it all out, but DuPont didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and didn’t want want to make people nervous by announcing that it had happened. The powder would float for awhile, but eventually it would sink.

“It was my job to extract the waste…”

I worked in the Teflon unit and it was my job to extract the waste, put it into dumpsters, and get it sent to Letard, which was the dump site south of the Washington Works plant.

Coverup-Badge

But DuPont hasn’t stopped fighting. From failing to clean up Parkersburg’s drinking water to paying out less than one percent of the Medical Monitoring fund, DuPont has continued to obstruct victims’ efforts to get treatment for C-8-related illnesses.

 

The C-8 cover up has spanned over six decades, and DuPont‘s failure to keep its promises to mid-Ohio Valley residents is its latest manifestation. The more we know, the less DuPont can get away with.