Wilmington, DE, August 12--The DuPont Co. on Wednesday sought a hearing to challenge federal allegations that the company failed to report health and environmental threats from a chemical used to make Teflon and other common consumer products, according to Delaware Online.
With millions in penalties at stake, DuPont alleged the Environmental Protection Agency abused its administrative discretion. The company also denied that the chemical was a threat and that it had failed to properly report releases and other information about the compound.
"DuPont fully and promptly reported to EPA all of the information it was supposed to report," the company said in a document filed Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The EPA last month said DuPont for years violated federal pollution control laws by failing to report known concerns about the company's releases of perfluorooctanoic acid and its potential toxicity. The chemical, also known as C-8, lingers in the environment and now is being studied by the EPA on a priority basis for possible cancer risks and effects on animal or human reproduction and development.
Last month, an EPA official said the agency would seek millions in penalties for the reporting failures, but ruled out demands for the maximum fine, estimated at $300 million.
Company spokesman R. Clifton Webb said late Wednesday that DuPont would wait until today to discuss the filing, as a courtesy to the EPA. Federal officials reached late Wednesday had not yet reviewed the document.
DuPont said it wanted to contest the allegations before an administrative law judge. The U.S. Court of Appeals would have jurisdiction in challenges to administrative rulings.
Timothy J. Kropp, a senior scientist with Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, said DuPont had failed to answer the EPA claim that the company violated Toxic Substances Control Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
"They try to skirt the issues," said Kropp, whose Washington, D.C.-based group has called for a ban on perfluoronated compounds. "Their own research has shown that it's hazardous."
The EPA has alleged that the company failed to report widespread contamination of drinking-water supplies near the DuPont plant in West Virginia and DuPont failed to report data suggesting C-8 could contaminate the blood of unborn children based on tests of a pregnant employee's blood.
In a 57-page response, DuPont said the EPA lacked jurisdiction to require an evaluation of C-8 releases from a West Virginia factory landfill, and accused the agency of retroactively applying rules governing the reporting of health-risk concerns.
DuPont's response said one of the EPA's charges "seeks to punish DuPont for establishing a level of safety that exceeds EPA's requirements."
Traces of C-8 and related chemicals have turned up at low levels in the blood of humans and animals around the world. The EPA is conducting an investigation into how the chemicals enter and break down in the environment, and their potential risks to humans.
Compounds under study are used in a range of consumer products, including Teflon, carpet stain protectors, fast-food packaging, paper products, cleaning compounds and clothing. DuPont operations release some of the chemicals under study to the air and water in West Virginia and from the Chambers Works Plant in Deepwater, N.J., at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Webb said recently that DuPont had agreed to greatly reduce releases of the chemical.
DuPont said in its response that a panel that included EPA representatives had agreed to a C-8 standard for drinking water that would allow concentrations far higher than those found in West Virginia faucets. Critics, including the Environmental Working Group, have dismissed the study group as biased in favor of DuPont and the chemical industry.
