State attorney general sues DuPont in chemical leak case

Ohio's attorney general has sued DuPont over the company's decades-long release of a chemical from a plant in West Virginia.

At issue is the dumping of the chemical C8 into the Ohio River from the DuPont Co. Washington Works plant, near Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The lawsuit filed Thursday by Republican Mike DeWine says Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont released C8 for decades beginning in the 1950s despite knowing risks it posed to Ohio's citizens and natural resources.

The lawsuit is one of thousands of state and federal complaints filed against DuPont over C8 in recent years. The company has agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits.

DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said the company hadn't seen the Ohio lawsuit and couldn't comment.