Judge sides with SC residents in million-dollar fight against chemical giants

Sammy Fretwell
·6 min read

A judge has sided with a Darlington County couple whose federal lawsuit against some of the nation’s biggest chemical manufacturers could help eastern South Carolina residents receive compensation for industrial pollution of their drinking water and land.

In a Sept. 26 order, U.S. District Judge Bryan Harwell refused to dismiss a lawsuit by the couple against DuPont, 3M and other companies accused of knowingly making and selling harmful “forever chemicals’’ to a South Carolina textile factory.

The Galey and Lord textile plant, which once employed hundreds of people, left substantial water and soil pollution when it closed in 2016 after using products from DuPont, 3M and others. Forever chemicals, a source of growing concern nationally, not only contaminated the abandoned factory property, but also nearby private wells and farm fields, which received waste sludge from Galey and Lord for use as fertilizer.

“We are happy with the result and we think the court has recognized that our theories are legally viable,’’ said Gibson Solomons, an attorney representing Kim and Jamie Weatherford, whose well is polluted and who live across the street from a farm that relied on Galey and Lord sludge. “It is good news.’’

In refusing to dismiss the case as requested by the chemical manufacturers, Harwell said the legal arguments made by Solomons and co-counsel Vincent Sheheen are reasonable and worth learning more about. While the judge’s ruling does not mean the court will ultimately rule in favor of the Weatherfords, it keeps the case alive.

Solomons and Sheheen, a former state senator and Democratic gubernatorial nominee, are seeking class action status, a type of legal standing that lets a couple like the Weatherfords sue on behalf of a larger group. If the class action status is approved, people in eastern South Carolina whose land is shown to be polluted as a result of the chemical manufacturers could be eligible for payments from the companies.

Hundreds of landowners could be eligible, depending on the resolution of the case. The manufacturers could be liable for a minimum of $5 million, but that amount is expected to be much higher if the Weatherford case is successful.

Solomons said he has been contacted by some property owners interested in the Weatherfords’ lawsuit, including farmers and their neighbors, since The State published a series in July on the hazards of sludge spreading in Darlington County and across South Carolina.

The series detailed how unsuspecting farmers had been persuaded to take waste sludge from the Galey and Lord plant as a low-cost fertilizer, only to find out years later that the factory’s sludge contained forever chemicals, formally known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

South Carolina regulators had for parts of 20 years, beginning in the early 1990s, approved the sludge spreading as safe, despite knowledge that Galey and Lord had violated an array of environmental laws, the newspaper reported. Today, dozens of wells on and near farms are polluted with the same forever chemicals found in sludge from the Galey and Lord plant. Some people say the chemicals made their families sick.

Statewide, about 3,500 agricultural fields have received state approval as sites for sludge disposal, the newspaper found. Since the newspaper’s series, Attorney General Alan Wilson has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers over natural resource damages.

Forever chemical exposure can affect fetal growth and cause or contribute to high cholesterol, kidney cancer, and immune system deficiencies. A 2022 federal report said there is sufficient evidence of an association between PFAS exposure and those health impacts, as well as evidence of other health problems, including testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis and breast cancer.

PFAS has been used in an array of products because of its durability, including firefighting foams, stain-resistant carpets and non-stick frying pans. Forever chemicals are appropriately named because they do not break down easily.

Darlington County, SC resident Kim Weatherford worries about how forever chemicals found in her well water affected the health of her son and husband. They drank the water for parts of a decade before federal officials installed filters on the well to reduce the threat. She lives in an area where farmers used sewer sludge as a fertilizer, but some of the sludge contained forever chemicals

Harwell’s 22-page order said the Weatherfords have reasonable arguments on multiple legal points against the chemical manufacturers.

Those arguments include allegations that the manufacturers knew about the dangers of forever chemicals but concealed the information from the public and government regulators, Harwell wrote.

The Weatherfords “have plausibly alleged that defendants engaged in abnormally dangerous activities themselves by manufacturing and distributing PFAS, while concealing the dangers of those chemicals,’’ Harwell’s order said.

Representatives of DuPont, Daikin America and Mitsubishi International Polymers could not be reached for comment, but DuPont and 3M have previously said in court documents that Galey and Lord is to blame for the contamination -- not them. The class action suit does not name Galey and Lord, although a separate state lawsuit does.

A 3M spokesman said this week the company was unhappy with the judge’s order.

“While 3M is disappointed in the judge’s ruling, we remain committed to addressing PFAS litigation by defending ourselves in court or through negotiated resolutions, all as appropriate,’’ spokesman Grant Thompson said in an email Monday. The email noted that 3M is moving away from the manufacture and sale of PFAS, which it had previously curtailed.

The company “announced in December 2022 that we will exit PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025 and work to discontinue its use across our product portfolio.’’

Galey and Lord at one point was one of the biggest employers in eastern South Carolina. It opened in 1966 with support from state political leaders and local officials seeking jobs for the economically depressed region. As a dyeing and finishing plant, the company acquired products containing forever chemicals that were used in manufacturing. Waste from manufacturing processes was riddled with forever chemicals.

DuPont, with roots to the early 1800s, is a multi-billion dollar corporation that has been a national leader in the manufacture of commercial polymers. In business for more than 100 years, 3M is best known for tape and photo copiers.

The companies, which bring in billions of dollars annually in revenue, have had a business relationship dating back more than 70 years. 3M began manufacturing forever chemicals in the late 1940s and sold some of them to DuPont. DuPont then made certain products, such as Teflon, with the chemicals it received, according to the Weatherfords’ lawsuit.

The suit says researchers at DuPont discovered the dangers of forever chemicals in the 1960s, but concealed scientific evidence that PFAS is harmful.

Nationally, the companies collectively reached settlements of more than $11 billion in lawsuits over water pollution from PFAS. But the settlement of suits across the country did not resolve all issues, including whether the companies are liable for the impacts on property from PFAS-containing products sent to Galey and Lord for use in South Carolina.

Other companies named in the suit include Chemours, a DuPont spinoff corporation; Daikin America, a subsidiary of a Japanese corporation that manufactured and distributed forever chemicals; and Mitsubishi International Polymer Trade Corp., a business from New Jersey that also manufactured and distributed forever chemicals.

Shirley Alford, who lives down a dirt road from a couple who has sued forever chemical manufacturers, says she drank well water for years, not knowing about forever chemical pollution in her well.. Alford lives in Darlington County, SC., across from a farm that relied on sludge fertilizer that was later found to contain forever chemicals. She suffers from cancer.