A former Hoechst Celanese plant near
Cannon's Campground, South Carolinas, is being blamed for improperly disposing
of contaminating chemicals and causing dozens of cancer cases since the 1960s,
according to this report
in GoUpstate.com.
Lawyers are representing 70 families in a
class action suit and the state's attorney general has been asked to file
criminal charges against the company, now known just as Celanese. While South
Carolina's environmental department claims the contamination of the ground
water remains beneath the site and has not migrated to local water wells,
residents are skeptical.
The site is at Hoechst Drive and I-85 and
was the location where chemicals were routinely dumped before environmental
regulations were in place. The groundwater cleanup has been going on since 1980
and will continue for 20, 30, 40 years or more. Lawyers say they have accounts
from former employees that point to the dumping as being illegal.
The Hoechst name has been associated with
a number of companies through mergers and acquisitions over its 131 year
history. It was founded in Germany and bought
Celanese in 1987 only to spin it off in 1998 while the company was trying to transition
from the chemical business to the pharmaceuticals business.
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