No deal: Pollution scuttles plant

Charleston Gazette
Published May 17, 2005

JOBS are scarce in West Virginia, and this fact is often used by the state's big employers in resisting efforts to clean up the environment. Controlling pollution of the air, the ground and the waterways is expensive, they often warn, and tight regulations make life hard for business. Last week, however, West Virginians got a hard lesson countering this argument. Luigino's Inc., a frozen food company that had planned to open a plant in Parkersburg, scuttled its agreement to build a 180,000-square-foot processing plant that would have brought 600 jobs to the area. The reason? The water the plant would have used may be contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid, or C8, a byproduct from the production of Teflon. The Minnesota-based company has sued the West Virginia Economic Development Authority, saying the agency failed to reveal a class-action lawsuit against DuPont over the possible contamination of the local water supply as a result of emissions from its Washington Works plant. DuPont settled the suit in September without admitting liability, and also agreed to resolve a complaint by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. C8 causes cancer in laboratory animals. Current research is underway to study whether the chemical, which stays in the environment, is dangerous to humans. Luigino's lawsuit says the company would have been using "hundreds of thousands of gallons of potentially contaminated water for the production of frozen food," if it had proceeded to build the Parkersburg plant. Industries that pollute the environment are not the only source of employment for significant numbers of West Virginians. Businesses like Luigino's depend on a clean environment to produce their products. The state's dirty water has resulted in the loss of 600 jobs. Other jobs and sources of economic growth are threatened. Tourists and retirees come to West Virginia to enjoy its pristine wilderness, now threatened by mercury pollution and the effects of irresponsible mining. The short-term cost of cleaning up the environment and controlling toxic emissions is well worth the long-term economic benefits for the state.