For years, Dupont has been polluting waterways and soils with the forever chemical PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid or “C8”), a type of PFAS that is used in Teflon coatings. C8 is linked to numerous sicknesses, which have harmed or killed cattle, fish, wildlife, and humans. [1] In 2001, private citizens sued Dupont to hold it accountable for the damage it caused and continues to cause. As one of the responses to that lawsuit, Chemours started as a spinoff of Dupont’s chemical manufacturing arm and became independent in 2015.[2]
The now independent company has a manufacturing plant along the Ohio River in Washington, West Virginia. There, it manufactures chemicals, coatings, and lubricants used for a variety of objects from semiconductors to kitchen utensils. While PFOA is no longer manufactured at this Chemours facility, Chemours does make a new alternative broadly called GenX (or HFPO-DA which is short for hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid). Recent studies have shown GenX to be just as toxic, if not more, than PFOA. [3]
History has a way of repeating itself, and today Chemours is allegedly discharging forever chemicals in quantities far over the legal limits. Even worse, the chemicals are being discharged into the Ohio River, a drinking source for millions of people.
The Clean Water Act
West Virginia Rivers Coalition is suing Chemours under the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act limits the amount of pollutants that can be discharged into water of the United States and requires permits for the discharge of those pollutants. When a company violates its permit, they are usually required to submit a plan to get back into compliance but can also be subject to further enforcement actions like monetary penalties.
In April 2023, the EPA found Chemours in violation of the Clean Water Act and gave it four months to submit a plan for getting back into compliance. Chemours submitted its plan, but the EPA rejected it. For a whole year, the EPA did not approve the new plan, and Chemours continued its pollution into the river. With no resolution in sight, WV Rivers filed suit in December of 2024. They learned, according to their brief, that the EPA was in negotiations that did not lead to a resolution. Then, in 2025, the Trump administration halted all agency action.
Under the Clean Water Act, citizens can bring a lawsuit to protect their interests. They can bring a suit so long as they are being harmed, and the government hasn’t acted on that harm. In this case, because the EPA and government negotiations did not lead to a resolution, WV Rivers stepped in under the citizen suit section of the Clean Water Act to hold Chemours accountable for illegal pollution.
Injunctive Relief
WV Rivers is suing Chemours and has asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction. A preliminary injunction is when a judge orders a somebody to stop doing something, even before a judgment has been made as to the final ruling of the case. Preliminary injunctions are often used to prevent harm that might occur while litigation carries on. If the preliminary injunction is granted, Chemours will need to stop dumping PFAS and GenX into the Ohio River, while WV Rivers continues to sue Chemours to bring it back into compliance completely.
To succeed on a motion for preliminary injunction, the plaintiff (in this case, WV Rivers and its representative members) must show that:
They are likely to win the case,
Both they and the environment will likely be harmed in a way that cannot be made right or corrected,
When balancing the interests of the parties, the interests favor the plaintiff,
And granting a preliminary injunction is in the interest of the public .[4]
In the motion for preliminary injunction, WV Rivers goes into depth on Chemours’ permit requirements, and how Chemours is violating that permit. Chemours is releasing, or discharging, PFAS at several locations throughout the Ohio River Valley. This injunction motion focuses on two major locations. These two locations spike over five times the permitted amount. Further, the levels of chemicals found at these locations are up to 30 times the recommended safe amount set by the EPA. According to WV Rivers’ brief, increased levels of these forever chemicals are even found downstream in Louisville and Cincinnati.[5]
WV Rivers makes a great point in showing that, at a North Carolina plant, Chemours disposes of the chemicals off site by injecting them deep into the earth or through incineration. But that’s not what Chemours does in West Virginia. WV Rivers argues, then, that there is no viable reason why the health of North Carolinians is more important than the health of West Virginians or those downstream from the factory.
The next step is a hearing on the motion where a judge will decide whether to grant the preliminary injunction. We will update this blog post after the judge makes a decision to explain what the ruling says and what it means for this case and access to healthy water for West Virginians.
[1] Aabbott v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., 54 F.4th 912, 916-918 (6th Cir. 2022).
[2] We recommend watching the documentary, “The Devil We Know” for more information about DuPont, C8, the lawsuit and it’s outcomes.
[3] EPA, Human Health Toxicity Assessment for GenX Chemicals Fact Sheet, 2 (Mar. 2023), https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-03/GenX-Toxicity-Assessment-factsheet-
March-2023-update.pdf (listing the side effects and stating that GenX can be more mobile than longer chain PFAS, leading to increased levels of exposure).
[4] Winter v. NRDC, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008).
[5] Brief for Plaintiff in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction at 4, 5, West Virginia Rivers Coalition Inc. v. The Chemours Company FC, LLC, Civil Action No. 2:24-cv-00701 (2025).
