EAST LIVERPOOL — The Weirton Area Water Board, Weirton, West Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit against Arcwood Environmental, formerly Heritage Environmental,125 St. George St., East Liverpool, seeking to recover substantial cost associated with the removal of synthetic per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) from the City of Weirton’s existing water sources.

PFAS are described in the court filing as “man-made chemical compounds used in a variety of industrial and commercial product applications. They are part of a class of chemicals called “emerging contaminants” because they have only recently been detected in the environment, until relatively recently were not well regulated, and their significant health risks were only fully understood recently. PFAS generally do not degrade through normal chemical, physical or biological processes. The resistance made them useful in industrial and commercial applications (products like Teflon and Gortex are examples cited frequently) but these same qualities have raised significant concerns due to their persistence in drinking water.”

According to court records, The Weirton Area Water Board and the City of Weirton, West Virginia own and/or operate a public water system which serves approximately 25,000 residential, commercial, industrial, public authority and resale customers in the Weirton and the surrounding areas of Hancock and Brooke counties West Virginia. They also own and/or operate a water treatment plant in Brooke County.

The Weirton Water Treatment Plant uses an intake located on the Ohio River in Brooke County as a water source, along with a collector located near the Ohio River.

The water drawn and treated from these water sources is used to provide drinking water to The Weirton Area Water Board/City of Weirton’s customers.

The Weirton Area Water Board/City of Weirton alleges in their filing that Arcwood Environmental and their operations are responsible for the PFAS in the Ohio River and are seeking to recover cost associated with the removal of PFAS from the water drawn from these sources and other available remedies under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act; and all the necessary funds to compensate for the costs of investigating, monitoring, evaluating, abating and remediating the presence of PFAS in water drawn from the sources, including the construction, installation, operation and maintaining the treatment facilities and equipment required to remove PFAS from the public water supplies.

The lawsuit alleges that Arcwood Environmental is the party who intentionally and negligently is responsible for the PFAS in the Ohio River and have caused or continue to cause injury and damage through their own conduct or the conduct of their agents or employees.

Court documents note that a research team examined the water near the East Liverpool facility and collected soil samples between 2021-2023 which revealed measurable amounts of PFAS and other forever chemicals such as PFOS and PFOA in soil samples within a 2-mile radius of the facility from East Liverpool, Ohio to Chester, West Virginia.

It is noted in the court filing that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and other public health agencies report that exposure to PFAS has been demonstrated to lead to a variety of significant health problems including reproductive effects such as decreased fertility or increased high blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental effects or delays in children including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, bone variations or behavioral changes, increased risk or some cancers including prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, reduced ability for the body’s immune system to fight infections, including reduced vaccine response, interference with body’s natural hormones and increased cholesterol levels an/or risk of obesity.

The court records also note that PFAS can cause these health problems at incredibly small concentrations.

An example provided in the court documents said that “drinking water contaminants like chloride, copper, and nitrate are tested and measured in milligrams per liter; one milligram per liter is equivalent to one part per million. Other drinking water contaminants like lead or sodium are measured in micrograms per liter; one microgram per liter is approximately one part per billion. PFAS are an order of magnitude smaller. PFAS are measured in nanograms per liter; one nanogram per liter is approximately equivalent to one part per trillion (‘ppt’). To put this in perspective, 1.0 ppt is roughly the equivalent of one drop of water in 20 olympic size swimming pools or one second in 32,000 years.”

PFAS are known as forever chemicals due to the strength of carbon-fluorine which makes them extremely resistant to degradation by sunlight, water, or biological processes. They can be released into the environment through air emissions, industrial wastewater discharges, spills, stormwater runoff, waste disposal practices, and attempts to destroy them through high temperature treatment or incineration and they can move the environment through water or soil.

PFAS according to the court filing can often remain in treated water once it enters the water source due to conventional drinking water treatment being largely ineffective at removing it.

Court records state that the East Liverpool facility has had a long history of environmental and contamination related violations regarding PFAS release with issues documented back to 2011 including an October 2018 consent decree entered into by Arcwood with the United Department of Justice (DOJ) and the EPA regarding Clean Air Act violations.

An EPA official wrote to the East Liverpool City Council expressing concerns over the incineration of PFAS waste at the East Liverpool facility.

Arcwood Transport, an Indiana-based limited liability company registered to do business in Ohio who provides transportation services for hazardous and non-hazardous waste to and from Arcwood Environmental’s East Liverpool facility along with other locations, has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit as well.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio (Youngstown) on April 7 as a civil suit for environmental matters

Calls to the Weirton Area Water Board and Arcwood Environmental were not returned.

Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com