LUIGINO'S FILES SUIT AGAINST WV ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP - Claiming They Hid DuPont's C8 Problem

(05/13/2005)
The DuPont C8 problem rears its head again.

A $36 million dollar deal to build a frozen food plant in Parkersburg and employ 600 people fell apart because the plant's proposed water supply is possibly contaminated by a chemical used to make Teflon.

So says a lawsuit filed by Luigino's Incorporated.

The Minnesota company is suing the West Virginia Economic Development Authority over a scuttled 2002 agreement.

Luigino's civil suit contends that the agency breached the agreement by failing to reveal that a class-action lawsuit had raised warnings over the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid - C-8 used to make Teflon - which is in the local water supply.

The amount of the suit was not learned.

The lawsuit says Luigino's was forced to cancel its plans because of the "stigma of significant contamination."