Cumberland County’s lawsuit to make DuPont and the Chemours Company pay for the damages caused by the contamination of drinking water by a group of chemicals known as PFAS advanced a step closer to trial.
On Thursday, the N.C Court of Appeals denied an appeal from the companies and sent the case back to a lower court for a jury trial. In September, Superior Court Judge Michael O’Foghludha ruled that DuPont and Chemours caused a public nuisance with aerial emissions of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances—commonly referred to as PFAS forever chemicals—from their Fayetteville Works chemical plant on the border of Bladen and Cumberland counties. The chemicals have been found in the drinking water wells of homes and at least two public schools in the Gray’s Creek area.
O’Foghludha said in his order that the only questions left for a jury to decide is how much the companies should pay in damages and how they should abate the nuisance they caused. Chemours provides bottled water to residents with contaminated wells and installed PFAS filters in some homes…