State
EnPro Hit With Two More Lawsuits
North Mississippi Herald
WATER VALLEY – A pair of long anticipated lawsuits
regarding the decades
old contamination at the
former Colt Industries/
Holley Carburetor site in
Water Valley have been
filed in Yalobusha County
Circuit Court. The first suit
was filed on Jan. 31 by the
Yalobusha County Board
of Supervisors on behalf of
the county and the Board
of Trustees of Yalobusha
General Hospital on behalf
of the hospital. The second
suit was filed on Feb. 11
by more than 30 property
owners in the affected area.
The plaintiffs are requesting
judgment including
compensatory damages,
special damages, punitive
damages, attorneys’ fees
and court courts, all in an
amount in excess of the
jurisdictional limits of the
Circuit Courts in the State
of Mississippi against the
defendants, which are En-
Pro Industries, Inc., EnPro
Holdings, Inc., Goodrich
Corporation and Samuel G. Williamson.
The plaintiffs, represented
by Ridgeland-based
Liston & Deas, PLLC, Texas-
based Ted B. Lyon and
Associates and Water Valley
firm CrowMartin, PLLC,
are requesting a jury trial.
There has been a flurry
of legal activity since the
lawsuits were filed, including
an order on March 1 by
the defendants to move the
case from circuit court to
the United States District
Court for the Northern
District of Mississippi. A
case management conference
is scheduled April 9.
Allegations In
The Lawsuits
The lawsuits, which tell
one side of the story, allege
that the Holley Automotive
Division of Colt Industries,
Inc. polluted the environment
in Water Valley from
1973 to 1987 with trichloroethylene
(TCE), a known
hazardous substance and
carcinogen that was used
as a solvent or degreasing
agent. The lawsuits also allege
that Colt’s repeated release
and discharge of TCE
into the environment at the
plant contaminated the soil contamination spread.
According to the lawsuits,
a groundwater
plume contaminated with
TCE emanates from the
premises of the Holley
plant and underlies a surface
area of approximately
340 acres located north and
northwest of the plant. The
plume allegedly impacts 28
residences and 11 commercial
or governmental buildings
including the health
department, jail, hospital,
nursing home, a child daycare
center, medical offices
and other businesses.
The lawsuits also allege
that the release of TCE at
the Holley plant by Colt
employees were grossly
negligent, reckless, and
often intentional, and the
releases occurred despite
Colt’s knowledge that the
chemical it was dumping
was a hazardous substance
which was dangerous to
both human health and the
environment. The suit alleges
that Colt was warned
that its pollution on the
Holley plant premises presented
a “reasonable likelihood
of off-site migration
of contaminated groundwater,”
which could potentially
damage the environment
for decades.
The 31-page suits also allege
groundwater remediation
which the defendants
undertook in the course of
a 30-year remedial history
was placement of recovery
wells at the leading edge
of an already large plume,
with the goal of stemming
further expansion of the
plume. However, the action
failed because the recovery
wells malfunctioned and
were shut down for over
10 years due to the defendants’
refusal to maintain
and repair the structures.
Allegations also include
negligent conduct by deviating
from a soil remediation
plan approved by
MDEQ.
According to the lawsuits
the plaintiffs, as owners
of the surface of their
land and the soil underneath,
have been impacted
and harmed by the defendants’
grossly negligent
and intentional acts and
omissions, subjecting the
plaintiffs and all persons
who use, inhabit or occupy
the buildings on the plaintiffs’
property are at risk
of vapor intrusion. The intrusion
into the buildings
are caused by TCE vapor
which volatilizes from
the TCE-contaminated
groundwater.
Details In The Lawsuit
• BorgWarner Emissions
Systems LCC acquired the
facility in 1996 after the
contamination occurred
and has no environmental
liability nor is a defendant
in the lawsuit. The
Holley Automotive Division
of Colt acquired the
plant building in 1972. Colt
changed its name to Coltec
Industries, Inc. in 1990, but
it continued manufacturing
operations at the plant
until 1996. As part of the
transaction, Coltec retained
the environmental liabilities,
which the EnPro Defendants
inherited by express assumption
or operation of law
• From 1973 to 1987 Colt
purchased and used more
than 80,000 gallons of TCE.
• Numerous employees
at the Holley plant who encountered
TCE and TCE vapor,
in sufficient concentrations,
experienced difficulty
breathing, dizziness, and
other sensory impairments.
• In 1974 one or more
Colt employees, acting on
instructions from their superiors
at Colt, intentionally
released spent TCE from
a holding tank into the environment
killing approxithemately 20 turtles in a ditch.
• Records maintained
by Colt employees at the
plant documented other
TCE spills and discharges.
A memo by Dwain Vinson,
a Colt manager, documented
a big spill and noted
a nearby property owner
complained that the ditch
water from the plant was
making her cows sick.
• Colt employees also
used TCE to kill weeds and
utilized a spray truck with
a 1,000 gallon tank to spray
the parking lot to “knock
down” the dust.
• Colt supplied its workforce
with drinking water
from a municipal well located
on the plant premises.
The well was sourced by
groundwater. In 1988 the
well used by employees at
the Holley plant for drinking
water tested positive for TCE
at a concentration of 5.2 parts
per billion. Colt then acted
quickly to supply its workforce
with an alternative
source of drinking water.
Lawsuits Mark
Latest Activity In
Ongoing Saga
North Mississippi Herald
WATER VALLEY – A
pair of lawsuits filed in
Yalobusha County Circuit
Court are the latest
development in a threeyear
saga that follows renewed
scrutiny into a decades-
old chemical spill
at the former Holley Carburetor
plant. The problem
stems from potentially
thousands of gallons of
trichloroethylene (TCE)
that were spilled, leaked
or dumped on property at
the plant during the 1970s
and 1980s.
The local scrutiny
abruptly surfaced back
in February, 2016, when a
crew with the Mississippi
Department of Environmental
Security (MDEQ)
showed up in Water Valley
on a Saturday to start
testing for contaminants
in the groundwater and
soil in an area north and
northwest of the plant.
Days before first coming
to Water Valley, MDEQ
had obtained an order
from the Mississippi
Commission on Environmental
Quality that required
EnPro Industries,
Inc., the company who acquired
the environmental
liability for the property,
to formulate and implement
a Vapor Intrusion
Assessment Work Plan
and Groundwater Action
Work Plan and submit
findings including recommendations
for corrective
action. The MDEQ order
also included a 10-year
remediation timeline if
there were no immediate
health concerns identified
during the testing.
During two public
meetings held in Water
Valley in early 2016,
MDEQ Executive Director
Gary Rikard explained
that his agency’s presence
was prompted by new
guidelines issued by the
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) about vapor
intrusion, or the process
where vapors from
underground solvents
travel upward through
the soil. Much of the initial
testing conducted
by MDEQ was conducted
directly adjacent to
homes and buildings to
determine if vapors from approxithe
underground solvent
were entering buildings
through crawl spaces,
cracks or other openings.
The potential problem
would be TCE entering a
home or residence as a vapor
and be inhaled for an
extended period. TCE is
a known carcinogen and
causes toxic effects to the
kidneys, central nervous
system, liver, immune
system, male reproductive
system and a developing
fetus.
Speaking during the
second public meeting on
March 29, 2016, Rikard
and other MDEQ officials
explained that the results
from February testing indicated
the levels did not
pose an immediate health
risk to humans. Rikard
also noted that the contaminated
area does not
affect drinking water because
there are no wells in
the area.
Another round of
testing in August, 2016,
showed there were elevated
levels of TCE in the
soil in four out of 43 sample
locations, all located in
Champion Circle, according
to data released by
MDEQ. The data also indicated
that seven sample
locations in the immediate
vicinity of the hospital
and nursing home indicated
that the TCE level
in the soil was below the
threshold deemed to be a
threat by the EPA.
Following that round
of testing, a MDEQ official
told the Herald that
the remediation plan was
moving forward, and the
samplings would help En-
Pro Industries, Inc., finalize
details for the plan to
reduce the levels of TCE
in the soil and water to a
level that is non-detectable
or below the agency’s
screening level. The
MDEQ official also said
that EnPro’s consultants
were having issues assessing
some properties
to conduct the sampling,
issues that stemmed from
potential litigation pending
on the matter.
The remediation was
thrust into the court system
when the first round
of litigation hit in April,
2017, after Mississippi
Attorney General Jim
Hood filed a lawsuit in
Yalobusha County Circuit
Court on behalf of
the State of Mississippi
against EnPro Industries,
Inc., Goodrich Corporation
and Oldco, LLC. The
lawsuit, which tells one
side of the story, alleges
that from 1973 to 1982, the
Holley Automotive Division
of Colt Industries,
Inc., (Colt) dumped and
buried hazardous waste
that contained TCE on the
plan site or on properties
owned by others. The suit
also alleges that excessive
amounts of liquid TCE
from storage tanks outside
of Colt’s plant building
leaked, spilled or was
intentionally discharged
into the ground.
The lawsuit seeks monetary
compensation from
the defendants for all
costs incurred by the state
for remediating and cleaning
up the groundwater
contaminated by the defendants,
and costs for remediation
of all TCE contaminated
soil to eradicate
the source of contamination.
General Hood’s lawsuit
also seeks punitive
damages, alleging that the
defendants intentionally,
recklessly or with gross
negligence, released and
discharged pollutants into
the environment with will
to harm the groundwater
and surface waters of the
State of Mississippi.
Much of the activity in
the lawsuit during the last
year has included filings
for discovery and depositions
from former employees
at the plant.
This year two more
lawsuits (see related story
on Page 1) were filed in
circuit court against En-
Pro Industries Inc., EnPro
Holdings, Inc., Goodrich
Corporation and Samuel
G. Williamson, a former
employee at the plant.
The plaintiffs in the first
lawsuit were Yalobusha
County and Yalobusha
General Hospital and the
plaintiffs in the second
lawsuit were almost 30
landowners in the affected
area.
Timeline For Steps
Taken To Address
Contamination
North Mississippi Herald
• October, 1988 – The Mississippi Department of
Health conducted a water assessment of a municipal well
on the plant’s property and a domestic well located within
a short distance from the plant. The tests revealed TCE
concentrations well in excess of the EPA’s maximum contamination
level.
• 1989 – Colt conducted a groundwater investigation in
the vicinity of the plant and the results were also positive
for TCE concentrations above the regulatory level.
• 1991-1992 – Coltec installed two groundwater treatment
systems to the north of an expanding TCE contamination
plume coming from the plant.
• 1993-1996 – Coltec excavated and treated by a thermal
“cooking” process approximately 3,500 cubic yards
from the plant premises.
• 2002 – 2016 – EnPro installed numerous monitoring
wells to the north, northwest and northeast of the plant in
an attempt to define the borders and dimensions of the
groundwater contamination plume. In the majority of the
wells testing during this time, the TCE concentrations in
the groundwater exceeded the EPA’s maximum contamination
level for TCE in the Water.
• 2011 – A remedial pumping system intended to remove
TCE from the groundwater was shut down by EnPro
in 2011 without informing the State of Mississippi. EnPro
reports the system experienced “iron fouling”. Although
MDEQ reported the system was shut down in 2011, allegations
in the lawsuits indicated the pumping system may
have been inoperable as early as 2007.
• February, 2016 – Testing indicated that TCE contamination
had migrated to and was detected in the water
of Otoucalofa Creek. The Mississippi Department of Environmental
Quality hosts a public meeting at the Water
Valley courthouse to inform landowners of the potential
threat. A second public meeting is held a month later to
report the test results from samples taken in the area.
• February, 2017 –TCE concentration in the ground
water underneath BorgWarner is releasing TCE vapor,
which intrudes on a constant basis into the work areas
of the BorgWarner plant building. Employees are notified
of the threat. Immediate action was taken by EnPro and
BorgWarner to increase ventilation inside the facility to
help reduce workers’ TCE exposure. According to MDEQ
these measures could include installing exhaust fans, adjusting
the HVAC system to circulate air flow, and/or installing
air purification systems.
• April, 2017 – Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood
files a lawsuit against EnPro Industries, Inc. and other defendants.
• January, 2019 – A second lawsuit is filed against En-
Pro Industries, Inc. and other defendants by Yalobusha
County and Yalobusha General Hospital
• February, 2019 – A third lawsuit is filed against EnPro
Industries and other defendants by almost 30 landowners
who have property or live in the area affected by the contaminated
groundwater and soil.
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