Top environmental attorneys with Baron & Budd and Seagle Law represent North Carolina county in lawsuit against chemical companies

DALLAS – Oct. 31, 2017 – Today, Brunswick County, North Carolina, took the first important step of addressing the long-term contamination of the Cape Fear River by DuPont and Chemours. The national law firm of Baron & Budd announced today that it has filed suit on behalf of Brunswick County in the United States Eastern District of North Carolina against Chemours and DuPont for their role in contaminating the Cape Fear River. The firm is pursuing legal action on the County’s behalf to recover costs required to investigate, manage, reduce and remove chemicals from drinking water drawn from the Cape Fear River. Harold Seagle of North Carolina-based Seagle Law will serve as co-counsel in the case.

Through initial investigations, Brunswick County has obtained evidence that Chemours and DuPont not only manufactured dangerous perfluorinated chemicals (“PFCs”) at the Fayetteville Works plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina since 1980, but also released PFC chemicals into the Cape Fear River over the span of many years without disclosure. The companies have continued to deposit PFCs into the river as recently as September 2017.

The legal team representing Brunswick County will be led by Baron & Budd Shareholder Scott Summy, one of the most successful water contamination litigators in the U.S. Summy and the Baron & Budd team have won over $1 billion for clients facing water contamination issues. Summy also brings a lengthy track record of protecting the drinking water of North Carolina residents. In the 1990s, he filed the first MTBE lawsuit against Conoco on behalf of Wilmington residents, which was settled in 1997 after a Wilmington-based jury rendered a multi-million-dollar verdict to cover the costs of medical monitoring.

DuPont is the fourth largest chemical company in the world based on market capitalization as of 2017, and is ranked No. 117 on the 2017 Fortune 500 list. The Chemours Company was spun off by DuPont in 2015, and today, it is a publicly-traded Fortune 500 Company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

“To think that DuPont and Chemours released their waste products directly into the Cape Fear River, which it knew was public drinking water for thousands of people, is unimaginable,” said Summy. “The unfortunate challenge now facing Brunswick County is contaminated drinking water caused by the non-disclosed deposit of PFCs into the Cape Fear River. The County is dedicated to ensuring its residents’ safety and quality of life are protected, which is why it has filed a lawsuit to resolve this situation.” 

ABOUT BARON & BUDD, P.C.

The law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C., with offices in Dallas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Austin, Los Angeles, and San Diego, is a nationally recognized law firm with a nearly 40-year history of “Protecting What’s Right” for people, communities and businesses harmed by negligence. Baron & Budd’s size and resources enable the firm to take on large and complex cases. The firm represents individuals and government and business entities in areas as diverse as dangerous pharmaceuticals and medical devices, environmental contamination, the Gulf oil spill, financial fraud, overtime violations, deceptive advertising, automotive defects, trucking accidents, nursing home abuse, and asbestos-related illnesses such as mesothelioma.