AG Hood sues over Grenada, Water Valley contamination

After outcry from residents and a U.S. congressman, the state attorney general’s office has sued companies in Grenada and Water Valley that allegedly dumped toxic chemicals, including Trichloroethylene (TCE), polluting the groundwater and air.
The suit alleges the Grenada facility operators, which manufactured hubcaps, dumped TCE directly onto the land on which the subdivision was built.
The state is also suing The Boeing Co., which never operated the plant, a statement from the company said, but merged with Rockwell years ago.
"They had water that was well water at the time.
As recently as January, the EPA announced the cancer-causing chemical currently exists as a vapor inside the Grenada facility at rates exceeding the federal action level, the highest threshold designated by the agency.
In Yalobusha County Circuit Court, the state is suing EnPro Industries, the company that acquired the liability for the contamination in Water Valley, Oldco LLC and Goodrich Corp.
The suit alleges Holley, a division of Colt Industries, leaked, spilled, or intentionally discharged TCE from its storage tanks outside the plant, "such that it leeched into the soil and migrated into the groundwater underneath the plant premises."
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is still conducting cleanup at the Water Valley site that began nearly 30 years ago.
"Defendants fraudulently concealed the continuing presence of pollution in the soil and groundwater on their plant premises and intentionally misrepresented the status of remediation efforts," the Water Valley suit alleges.
EPA would not comment on the litigation, and DEQ released the following statement: "We are not a named party in the lawsuit; however, we are aware of it.