New Jersey Sues Solvay Over Alleged Water Contamination From New PFAS Compound

The lawsuit sheds new light on Solvay’s use of unregulated PFAS compounds being used in place of PFNA. Solvay reported that it began using replacement compounds even before phasing out PFNA, in 2010, after the state ordered it to release information about its use of that compound, according to the complaint.

“In April 2019, Solvay reported to the Department that it has discharged and emitted ‘replacement’ PFAS products into New Jersey’s environment for more than two decades, and that it continues to use, emit, and discharge these compounds today,” the lawsuit alleges.

Information about the company’s use of newer PFAS compounds has trickled out over the past year. In June, researchers from the DEP and the Environmental Protection Agency published a study in Science, which found newer PFAS compounds it believed were used by Solvay in soil samples taken in New Jersey. The state says those compounds are believed to be a type of PFAS known as chloroperfluoropolyether carboxylates, or ClPFPECAs.

A few months later, the researchers disclosed in a separate study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, that the same compounds had been found in drinking water.

New Jersey DEP scientists analyzed Solvay’s own studies on the PFAS replacements and determined that they pose a “potential for human toxicity” at even lower doses than older ones, CR reported last month. That research, conducted in rats, “indicated that these PFAS cause liver toxicity at very low doses,” a state scientist wrote in an email CR obtained.

But at the same time, Solvay’s confidentiality claims have “hidden much of its activity regarding these compounds from the Department and from public view,” the lawsuit claims. Solvay has asserted the specific chemical identities of its replacement PFAS, emissions information, safety data, and toxicology studies “that describe the health and environmental risks they pose” are confidential and proprietary, the state claims in the complaint.

“In so doing, Solvay has effectively barred the Department from disclosing this information to the public at this time,” the suit says.

Consumer advocates have called for Solvay to release safety information on its replacement PFAS, but the company so far has refused to say whether it would agree to release the information.

“Solvay has exacerbated the impact of its PFAS on the public health, safety, and environment by treating virtually all information regarding the safety of and its use, discharge, and emission of the ‘replacement’ PFAS compounds as Confidential Business Information, thereby limiting the Department’s ability to act promptly to address the ultra-hazardous activities involving and the impacts of Solvay’s ‘replacement’ compounds,” the DEP’s lawsuit says.

In addition to PFAS pollution, the lawsuit—which also names the manufacturer Arkema, the predecessor at Solvay’s manufacturing site, as a defendant—claims that toxic heavy metals and volatile organic compounds have been detected in groundwater near the facility. These include arsenic, antimony, beryllium, chromium, lead, and cobalt, “all of which have been detected on-site at levels exceeding groundwater quality standards,” the lawsuit says. Levels of PFNA in public drinking water near the facility are higher than what has been reported anywhere else in the world, the lawsuit says.

The 10-count complaint is likely to reinvigorate calls from advocacy groups for decisive regulatory action around PFAS, including a proposal to manage the compounds as a chemical class, rather than one by one. The EPA has yet to issue a national enforceable limit for PFAS in drinking water, instead providing only voluntary guidelines for two of the compounds, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid). Some states have stepped in to fill the void and have implemented legal standards for a handful of other PFAS, as New Jersey did in the case with PFNA.

The DEP’s case follows a lawsuit filed last month by Solvay against another local manufacturer, claiming it was responsible for PFNA contamination in the region. But the DEP says that evidence links Solvay to “widespread” PFAS contamination and that the company refuses to take “full responsibility for the necessary investigation and remediation.”

“Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, LLC’s conduct has been driven by its desire to profit from the sale of its products and avoid the expense of properly disposing of and cleaning up PFAS,” the lawsuit says, “despite the harm it has caused to New Jersey’s citizens and the environment.”