DuPont Reaches $1.275 Mln Settlement With Regulators In Toxic Releases Case

(RTTNews) - Chemicals giant EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (DD), commonly called DuPont, has reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Justice to resolve clean air act violations and protect communities and kanawha river near West Virginia, the two agencies announced Wednesday.

The settlement will see DuPont paying a penalty of $1.275 million and take corrective actions to prevent future such harmful releases that is estimated to cost it about $2.28 million.

The settlement agreement, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.

"Producing toxic and hazardous substances can be dangerous, and requires complying with environmental and safety laws. Today's settlement with DuPont will ensure that the proper practices are in place to protect communities and nearby water bodies," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

The company is charged of violations since January 22, 2010 when more than 2,000 pounds of methyl chloride was found to have leaked into the atmosphere and employees failed to respond to alarms triggered by the release. The next day a worker died after being exposed to a ruptured hose containing highly toxic gas phosgene.

The largest of the releases was of 80 tons of methanol into the Kanawha River on September 21, 2010. Five other instances of toxic releases were detected during EPA's inspection of DuPont's records. These were not reported in a timely manner.

The company is charged of alleged violating general duty clause and risk management provisions of the Clean Air Act.

The company also allegedly violated the emergency response provisions of Section 103 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, as well as Section 304 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont said the deal settles over eight alleged instances of releases of harmful levels of hazardous substances between May 2006 and January 2010 at its Belle, West Virginia-based facility.

The settlement will also see Dupont taking corrective actions to prevent future harmful releases and damage to the environment. The company estimates that it will spend $2.28 million to complete required improvements to its safety and emergency response processes.

DuPont has already spent about $6.83 million to comply with an administrative order of March 18, 2010 from the EPA that sought DuPont to undertake corrective measures related to the releases.

DD closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $65.93, down $0.23 0r 0.35% on a volume of 2.15 million shares.