Davis & Whitlock achieved an important settlement in a federal Clean Air Act citizen suit filed on behalf of landowners who reside in close vicinity to Scepter Greeneville Inc.’s secondary aluminum production facility in Midway, Tennessee. The settlement, which was accomplished through a Consent Decree approved by the Department of Justice and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, required that Scepter completely replace the hoods which capture the emissions from the furnaces used in the secondary aluminum production process at the Scepter facility. This will ensure that all emissions from the facility’s operations are properly routed to air pollution control devices prior to being released into the atmosphere. This settlement will result in improved air quality in East Tennessee, and will allow Plaintiffs and others in the vicinity of the Scepter facility to use and enjoy their properties without having to worry about the health concerns associated with the smoke, emissions, and noxious vapors previously emitted by the Scepter facility.
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Davis & Whitlock Achieves BP Settlement for Key West and Keys Electric Utility
Davis & Whitlock and Gulf Oil Spill Litigators achieved a $2.7 million dollar settlement for the City of Key West and a $2 million dollar settlement for Keys Energy Services, the electric utility for the Lower Keys, on July 15, 2015. The settlements were part of an $18.7 billion global settlement between BP and federal, state, and local governments, which included civil penalties under the Clean Water Act, natural resource damages, and loss of revenues for state and local governments. The settlements were approved by the City of Key West and Keys Energy on July 14 and July 8, respectively.
Extensive PFOA Contamination Discovered around Former Saint-Gobain Manufacturing Plant – North Bennington, Vermont
Davis & Whitlock, together with three Vermont law firms, Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP, Witten, Woolmington, Campbell & Bernal, P.C., and Barr Sternberg Moss Silver & Munson, P.C., are representing North Bennington, Vermont residents who have been impacted by the discovery of widespread perflourooctanoic acid, or PFOA, contamination on their properties around a former manufacturing plant in North Bennington last operated by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. The State of Vermont has linked the PFOA contamination to a former manufacturing plant, which was operated by ChemFab Corporation from approximately 1970 to 2000, when Saint-Gobain purchased ChemFab and took over manufacturing operations at the plant. To date, over 125 private drinking water wells of local residents have been sampled and found to contain levels of PFOA well in excess of Vermont’s health advisory level of 20 parts per trillion. For over 30 years, the plant was engaged in the manufacture of Teflon coated fiberglass fabrics, and PFOA was a key chemical used in this process. PFOA is toxic to humans, and a probable link between exposure to PFOA and a number of diseases has been established. For more more information, please call us at (828) 622-0044.
Davis & Whitlock Welcomes Attorney Doug Ruley to Firm
Davis & Whitlock, P.C., a nationally-recognized environmental law firm, is excited to announce the addition of attorney Douglas A. (“Doug”) Ruley to the firm in an of counsel capacity. Doug opened the Asheville office of the Southern Environmental Law Center (“SELC”) in 1999. While at SELC, Doug litigated cases involving the forests and biodiversity of the Appalachians, air and water pollution, transportation, and land use, until he received a Fulbright Fellowship to Europe in 2010. From 2012 through 2015, Doug taught at Vermont Law School and was the Director of the law school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. Doug graduated from Harvard Law School and UNC-Chapel Hill, and is happy to return to Asheville and join Davis & Whitlock’s environmental mass torts and public interest environmental law practice.