Tuesday, September 12, 2023–12:11 p.m.
-John Bailey, Rome News-Tribune-
This story is possible because of a news-sharing agreement with the Rome News-Tribune. More information can be found at northwestgeorgianews.com.
The E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company has filed a lawsuit to block the Rome News-Tribune from publishing the dollar amount the company must pay in the settlement of a water pollution lawsuit with the City of Rome.
City Commissioners approved the settlement during their Monday meeting, and once approved that settlement then becomes public record. However, a motion was filed at 11:24 p.m. Monday in Floyd County Superior Court after the Rome News-Tribune filed an Open Records Request. That motion seeks to block the publication and release of that information by the RN-T as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which has also reported on the settlement.
The motion filed by E.I DuPont De Nemours and Company, The Chemours Company, The Chemours Company FC, LLC, DuPont De Nemours, Inc., and Corteva Inc., all standalone spinoffs of DuPont, claim that information is “designated trade secret confidential information.”
The issue in this case is straightforward: are documents that constitute trade secrets, and have been property and effectively designated as such by (the company) exempt from disclosure pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act? The answer is ‘yes,’ and Rome has erroneously concluded the opposite,” the motion penned by Josh Belinfante with the Atlanta-based Robbins firm states.
An exhibit attached to a motion to speed up a judgment concerning the suit contains an affidavit from Chemours attorney Mary Erin Mariani. The affidavit states that the company feels the disclosure of the dollar amount of the settlement with Rome would reveal their litigation strategy.
“If the ‘protected information’ were to become public, Chemours’ competitors, actual and future litigants, and other commercial entities could potentially replicate, adopt or anticipate Chemours’ analysis and strategies, which would place Chemours at a competitive and business disadvantage in future and cause Chemours economic harm…,” the affidavit stated.
As of Tuesday morning, no hearing has been scheduled regarding the motion. The case has been assigned to Floyd County Superior Court Judge Bryan Johnson.
Settlements in ongoing negotiations concerning the release of toxic chemicals into Rome’s waterways have reached just under $159 million.
The lawsuit sought to recoup some, or all, of the costs incurred by the city and water department customers to completely remove PFAS and PFOAS from drinking water.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019, involved 32 defendants including DuPont, Chemours, Shaw Industries, 3M, Daikin America, Secoa Technology LLC in Dalton, Mohawk, Aladdin Manufacturing Co., Engineered Floors LLC, and Dalton Utilities.
The finalized settlements with 27 defendants in the case, obtained through an open records request, represent only a portion of the total settlements. The DuPont defendants are the final defendants to reach a finalized settlement in the case.
The settlements have allowed the city to roll back water rate hikes incurred from the cost of filtering the PFAS family of chemicals from the water supply.
The settlement funds also will cover the construction and maintenance of a reverse osmosis water treatment facility to completely remove the chemical from the city’s main water supply, the Oostanaula River. The estimated cost of that facility — to be located on Riverside Parkway — was stated earlier this year at approximately $100 million. However, the estimated cost is likely to increase as construction costs continue to rise across the market.
As part of the agreement, the city will not raise rates due to PFAS issues in the future.
At this point, the city is not issuing refunds stemming from past rate hikes, pending the resolution of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court filed by Rome resident Jarrod Johnson.