A federal appeals court in Virginia will hear oral arguments in September in a lawsuit against Union Carbide.
The Courtland Company and Union Carbide will present their case to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, on Sept. 11.
Courtland is asking the appeals court to reconsider a U.S. district judge’s decision last year not to impose a permanent injunction ordering Union Carbide to stop the discharge of pollutants from its Filmont Landfill in South Charleston.
It asks the appeals court to reject a voluntary remediation agreement between Union Carbide and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for cleanup of the site.
And it asks the court to consider increasing the civil penalties of $200,000 for violations of the Clean Water Act.
Courtland filed its first lawsuit in 2018, seeking to stop water pollution from the Filmont Landfill. The facility operated for nearly three decades, and as court testimony showed, it never was properly permitted.
Union Carbide filed for a water pollution control permit for the landfill late last year.
Testimony showed some local officials knew about the landfill for years, but its existence was not widely known until Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. unsealed documents in 2019 as part of Courtland’s lawsuit.
Cortland had asked Copenhaver to impose tens of millions of dollars in Clean Water Act penalties on Union Carbide, but he only fined the company for one day of violations.
